Christopher Eccleston, known for a host of stage and screen appearances, will summon the spirit of Walt Disney in a timely mini-season of American play readings in Newcastle.
The question of what makes America tick arose with the recent mid-term elections, seen as a gauge of the Trump administration’s popularity and revealing that it’s not as popular as it once was.
In advance of the poll, Jack McNamara, artistic director of Live Theatre, said: “The current American administration has seemed intent on rolling back on the diversity that has always seemed part of that country’s dynamism.
“Part of the purpose of the readings is to delve into the psyche of the place and question how we got here because Trump and his team aren’t wholly an anomaly.
“They’ve come from somewhere, so the guiding light with these three plays, in addition to them being brilliantly entertaining, is what do they say about America?”
The season of “groundbreaking” readings opens on November 12 with Topdog/Underdog, a play that in 2002 made writer Suzan-Lori Parks the first female African-American writer to win the Pulitzer Prize for drama.
While Live Theatre bill it as “a darkly comic fable of brotherly love and family identity”, Jack describes it as “an absolutely mind-blowing two-hander about two African-American brothers.
“One has the job of dressing up as Abraham Lincoln and the other is a cardsharp desperately trying to get his life together.
“It’s a beautiful rendition of how the idea of aspiration, that if you work hard in America you get what you want, is for a select few and not the likes of the characters in this work.”
Jack, who saw the play when it was first performed at London’s Royal Court Theatre by a rapper then called Mos Def, recalls it being “electric”.
To play the brothers, he signed up actors David Alade and Valentine Olukoga who shone in his acclaimed production of The Fishermen, a play he directed in 2018 before joining Live Theatre.
“I thought if I needed two brothers with great electricity, it had to be these guys. They’re based in London but we’re reuniting for this event.”
Christopher Eccleston will be on stage on November 13, leading the cast for a reading of the rather confusingly titled A public reading of an unproduced screenplay about the death of Walt Disney, by another award-winning American writer, Lucas Hnath.
This reading of a play structured as a reading will have the actors seated round a table with their scripts of a fictitious screenplay about ‘Uncle Walt’, with Eccleston playing the man himself.
“I don’t think it has been done here before,” says Jack.
“I’ve always got an eye open for things and I find this writer really interesting.
“I thought if we’re digging into the American psyche, who better to dig into than the mysterious Walt?”
The play premiered in New York in 2013. A reviewer who saw a Los Angeles production called it “brilliant and scathingly funny”.
The Newcastle reading means a relatively quick return to Live Theatre for Christopher Eccleston who in June performed a monologue called The Name of that Song.
It saw him reunited with writer Peter Flannery who created one of his most famous roles, that of Nicky in the TV series Our Friends in the North.
Closing the season on November 14 will be a play by Annie Baker called John, about a Brooklyn couple who are drifting apart.
“She’s one of the great playwrights of our time,” says Jack.
“She’s quite young but has written some extraordinary plays, including one called The Flick, set in a movie theatre, which was a hit at the National Theatre.
“John is a beautiful work featuring this young couple in a strange B&B that has a haunted quality to it.
“The whole thing is like a strange ghost story but she’s an immensely funny writer and the dialogue is hilarious. She’s the Queen of Awkward. It’s a powerful piece of work.”
The season promises a potent insight into American drama and American lives but even Jack admits it can’t hope to be comprehensive.
“We’re digging into a very complex nation that’s full of all kinds of problematic history,” he says.
“It’s built on injustice really so that has to be there but these plays are by very sparky, sharp writers.
“There’s nothing turgid or heavy about how they write and these pieces have a fresh and contemporary feel.
“I think between them they give a beautiful picture of where American theatre is but also offer an insight into where the turmoil has come from.
“And I hope they give us some hope that the America we’ve seen represented recently is not the only America.
“There’s brilliant variety and diversity and dynamism in the culture and in the people. We need to remember that President Trump is not the only thing it’s about.”
Find details of the American mini-season on the Live Theatre website.