New comedy by Northumberland playwright set to debut at Whitley Bay theatre

It hasn’t even been a year since his first full length work was premiered and now he’s about to clock up play number three.

“I’m in a different position to lots of other people trying to do this,” he says.

“If I’d been doing this 35 years ago, I wouldn’t be able to devote the same kind of time to it.. I’d be juggling it alongside everything else.”

You can tell he used to work in advertising.

Ian’s latest play is called Juggling and it’s opening at Laurels Theatre in Whitley Bay tonight (April 11) for a just-over-two-week run.

But let’s get a bit of background intel on Ian first.

Originally from Essex, Ian spent three years in a comedy double act in the late 1980s – starting while he was still at university.

Sharing a bill with the likes of the Dangerous Brothers (Comic Strip superstars Ade Edmondson and Rik Mayall) and Paul Merton in and around London comedy clubs, he knocked it on the head when he realised, ‘we just weren’t good enough’.

Economic realities led to him ‘sticking a pin in a map’ before moving to the North East where he and his brother set up an advertising agency, Smith Creative, and worked together for the next 30-odd years from its offices on Newcastle’s Westgate Road.

It wasn’t until 2020 that Ian, who lives just north of Cramlington, decided to raise the curtain on his theatre-making ambitions – undertaking an MA in Theatre and Performance at Northumbria University.

“I’d been writing professionally as a copyrighter all the time we had the business, but I wanted to do something else. We sold up after the pandemic and I decided to put my efforts into playwrighting and directing.”

His first play, Knot was a three-hander about the nature of co-dependent relationships – “It was basically a lockdown play, which I’d strangely written before lockdown,” he says.

Next up was the tasty-sounding Eat, which combined a night at the theatre with an evening of fine dining.

“It was about a high-end restaurant and then at the end of the play, the restaurant produced the food and the audience all got to enjoy it. It sold out with two weeks to go.”

Both plays were performed at The Exchange in North Shields – currently about to be taken over by a new operator after a decision by North Tyneside Council which will see The Exchange Theatre charity move out of the building.

Juggling will meet its first audiences along the road in Whitley Bay.

“I can’t remember how I met Jamie,” says Ian, speaking of Laurels Theatre’s artistic director and co-founder, Jamie Eastlake. “I think I just came in on the off chance and told him what I was up to… he’s been really supportive and I really like what they’re doing here.”

A comedy designed to ‘give people a good night out at the theatre’, the story follows the hectic and stressful life of Neve – a young woman who has to hold down three jobs to make ends meet.

Alongside being a delivery driver for ‘the world’s worst delivery company’ (we all know who we’re talking about here, yes?), Neve also puts in shifts as a cold caller… and then there’s her role as a children’s entertainer.

“If she wasn’t having a bad enough day, her boss turns up with some bad news,” trails Ian.

Rebecca Clayburn (Gerry and Sewell) plays Neve, while Adam Donaldson – fittingly - plays everyone else.

“So many people I know are doing this,” says Ian of the play’s premise.

“Lots of my daughter’s friends, the actors in the play.. there are teachers going out driving taxis in the evening. It’s really ridiculous.”

So would he call this a political play?

“I wouldn’t say so, no. I mean, I think the politics of it will be pretty obvious, but I’m not shoving it in people’s faces.

“At the end of the day, it’s a comedy and I want people to have a good night out. It’s not like we haven’t got enough to be miserable about.”

Juggling opens at Laurels Theatre, Whitley Bay on April 11 and runs to April 29. For tickets visit www.laurelswhitley.co.uk

Sam Wonfor is the editor of Cultured. North East, a website spreading the word about great North East culture from www.culturednortheast.co.uk.