Actors Mark Womack and Jay Johnson share their excitement at bringing Boys From the Blackstuff to Newcastle Theatre Royal
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00:00You're going up to the North East because you're going to Newcastle.
00:02Yeah.
00:03Yeah.
00:03So how are you feeling about Newcastle?
00:05I'm really excited about Newcastle because it's a port city and, you know, plays.
00:10There's the docks and even though it's about the black stuff, but the docks feature quite strongly in the play.
00:17The whole thing about port cities and the romance of port cities and the songs and everything.
00:23And also there's definitely a kinship Glasgow as well.
00:26We're going to between people from Liverpool and Newcastle and Glasgow.
00:33I think there's definitely some sort of connection somewhere.
00:38So I'm excited about that.
00:41Anything to add on Newcastle?
00:43No, I'm looking forward to Newcastle.
00:45I've only been there a couple of times before just for pleasure, not for work.
00:50So it'd be nice to go on to perform there and again, tell another working class story to working class people.
00:57And, you know, I know up in that area of the country, they went through their own sort of hardships with like minor strikes and stuff like that.
01:08That sort of went on around, you know, the sort of the north-east area.
01:13So that again, that's another tie that sort of binds us together with this story.
01:19It's touching on similar aspects and, you know, we have a video thing at the start and you see a certain politician of that time,
01:32which maybe may rile a few emotions in people as well.
01:37So, yeah, I'm looking forward to it.
01:38Why should people buy tickets to come see you?
01:43Why do you think?
01:46I would say, you know, in saying everything we've already said, it is really funny as well.
01:52Yes.
01:52You've got everything in this play.
01:54You've got humour.
01:56You've got, it's thought-provoking.
01:59It's heartbreaking at times.
02:01There's an amazing sequence.
02:04It's a fight scene.
02:06I won't tell you any more and it literally will break people's hearts when they see it.
02:10It always does.
02:11It never fails.
02:14So it's really got everything, you know.
02:17Put that TV remote down and come out and see a proper play and good acting and songs, humour.
02:25You'll laugh, you'll cry.
02:27Yeah.
02:28No, I agree.
02:29Yeah, I think we live in an age now where entertainment, shall we call it, is so accessible.
02:39It's at our fingertips, whether it's, you know, Netflix, Instagram Reels, TikToks, YouTube, Amazon, whatever it may be.
02:46And that we can get lost in that as well.
02:50It's very easy to get lost in that world.
02:53And it's very easy to start something, pause it, go to the toilet, make a cup of tea.
02:58Whereas when you come to the theatre, for those two hours, your phone's off, hopefully.
03:02And you're, you know, you're just engrossed in what's going on on the stage and, you know, whether, and it's in touching distance.
03:12And, you know, we have cups of tea and stuff in the show and you can see the steam coming off them.
03:18We have food, you know, there's, like, the black stuff, which is the tarmac that's in, like, a big, what do you call it, bucket.
03:30And there's smoke coming off it.
03:33So you can, there's these things that you can smell.
03:35Someone's having a cigarette in the scene, you can smell it.
03:38It allows your imagination to be fully invested in it.
03:42And there's no distractions.
03:45And because it's so close, I think those emotional moments and the moments of comedy sort of hit more.
03:53Because, as I say, hopefully you're more invested because you're there.
03:56You can almost touch it.
03:57You can smell things.
03:58You can see it.
03:59And it's much more of an experience, I think.
04:06So, yeah, come and see us.