Sunday Column: Black, White and Beyond
Gerry and Sewell always told a story about chasing the dream. Off stage, the team behind it did exactly that. And caught it.
Supping on my Purely Belter-branded beer after Thursday’s gala performance of Gerry and Sewell, I realised this show has offered me a cultural PB I can’t see myself topping. (Unless Matilda The Musical is still going when the grandkids come along).
Never before have I seen a piece of theatre seven times. A quick rundown.
Twice at Laurels in Whitley Bay, because after seeing it once, I immediately took a mate who I knew would love it.
Twice at Live Theatre, partly because my son was in the hooligan chorus and took great pleasure in giving his parents a full and enthusiastic breakdown of his newly acquired hand gesture vocabulary.
Once during its first run at Newcastle Theatre Royal.
Once in the West End.
And then one final time on Thursday back at the top of Grey Street during its final season of performances.
While that might seem excessive, the truth is that seeing Gerry and Sewell - Jamie Eastlake’s stage adaptation of Jonathan Tulloch’s novel The Season Ticket and the film (Purely Belter) it inspired - never really feels like seeing the same show twice.
True, it has always been raw, funny, moving, sharp and full of heart. It has also always told a story that feels deeply rooted in this region while also saying something much bigger about friendship, hope and what it means to keep reaching for something that feels out of grasp.
What has changed is the scale.
Watching this production grow from a 60-seat attic theatre in Whitley Bay to Live Theatre, then Newcastle Theatre Royal, then all the way to the Aldwych in London has been a real privilege.
I remember Jamie standing on the stage at Laurels as he launched its opening season and telling the audience that something they saw on that stage would end up in the West End.
It was a huge statement to make. Not least in a venue small enough to ensure everyone knew what flavour crisps everyone else had opted for.
Undoubtedly one of the biggest dreamers I know, and I mean that in the best possible way, Jamie dreams big and quite rightly doesn’t apologise for it. But even knowing that - and with an Olivier Award on his shelf - I’m not sure he genuinely expected to be able to scratch that promise off his to-do list inside five years
And yet there we were in January, watching the top of the Strand turn black and white as Gerry and Sewell took its place at the Aldwych.
A fiercely Geordie production, built around a beloved North East story and wearing its voice, its humour and its identity as proudly as Sewell wears his NUFC bench coat, had somehow made the leap from fringe theatre to the West End without losing any of the things which made people fall in love with it in the first place.
That doesn’t happen often. And I’m confident that it’s never happened when the team behind it have had just eight weeks to pull it together.
Maybe that’s partly why the parallels between the story on stage and the story off it have felt so tangible.
At its core, Gerry and Sewell is about two lads chasing a dream while the odds stack up against them. It’s about refusing to stop hoping, even when experience, logic and everyone around you tells you to lower your sights.
That idea has never felt far from what has been happening behind the scenes with this production.
There’s something quite brilliant about the fact that while we leave Gerry and Sewell still striving for their dream, the people who brought their story to life have been living theirs.
Not that this has all unfolded like some neat theatrical fairytale.
Behind every standing ovation and every “what a journey” headline have been sleepless nights, difficult conversations, enormous financial pressure and a huge amount of risk.*
*A documentary is in the making, courtesy of film maker Meg Jepson
While Jamie has been the driving force from the start, Gerry and Sewell’s journey has also been shaped by the people and organisations who recognised what it could become and got behind it. Newcastle Theatre Royal stepping in as co-producers after the move from Live Theatre was a huge moment, bringing not just belief but invaluable expertise, resources and support.
Even with that backing, the run-up to the West End transfer felt faintly bonkers. Raising the money needed to make it viable while simultaneously dealing with all the creative and logistical demands of moving a production of that scale to London was, by any sensible measure, ridiculous.
But they did it - and then brought it back home for the on stage equivalent of an open top bus encore.
Far from an ending though, Gerry and Sewell feels like a big beginning.
Eastlake Productions has a brimming slate of work in development, and this show now stands as an unequivocal statement of what they can do - not just creatively, but in terms of sheer ambition and belief.
They have shown that big ideas from the North East do not need to think small.
They have shown that stories from here can fill major stages while staying true to themselves.
And they have shown that sometimes the seemingly impossible thing is only impossible until someone decides to do it anyway.