Tom and Catherine

You can’t come from the North East and not have heard of Catherine Cookson; but perhaps not her life story as told in this production a series of reminisces from the old Catherine and husband, Tom.
Staged at the Customs House literally on the banks of the Tyne you’d expect the Geordie accents to be authentic, and they were; but so too were the dialects from Essex of the child Tom and Kent of the adult Tom.

Featuring really upbeat opening music of “In this Life” to the mournful sorrowful solos of “Hanging on to Life” to dramatic duos “Something Special”; the control of the orchestra was held by Jonny Winter with his five piece band which never overpowered the cast and was underscored superbly throughout.

Old Tom and Catherine (Tony Chapman and Kathryn Atack) reminisced on their lives together at the end of their days and were on stage throughout using the split set which was well suited to the purpose. Both sang superbly often harmonizing with their younger adult selves (Gary Dring and Natalie Elleithy). Tony and Kathryn’s characterisations were truly magnificent as were Gary and Natalie.

The child versions had a wonderful duet together in “Something Special” and deserve special praise, the roles being shared between child Tom (Joe Cook and Bonnie-Belle Atack) and child Catherine (Millie Adams and Charlotte Adams) – the young adult version of Catherine about to embark on the world (Ellie Falconer) also played her role wonderfully.

Playing Catherine’s drunken abusive mother, Kate, in a believable and slightly scary fashion was Tracy Office and adult Catherine’s long term but equally ‘clingy’ friend ‘Nan’ was well played by Dianne Jackson.

A special mention to Natalie in her role as adult Catherine as we saw her handle her mental turmoil of miscarriage in the haunting song “Hanging on to Life” as was her harmonizing together with Kathryn in “Blessed with Peace”. Tony's finale number "I Need your Love" was powerfully delivered leaving not a dry eye in the house.

Featuring wonderful chorus work, and enhanced by smaller principal roles of nurse, priest and abusive drunkards, the story came to life in poignant and, at the end, emotional fashion as the story of South Tyneside’s favourite daughter was told from her childhood through her mental and physical illnesses to her latter years and charity work.

Well done to the technicians for allowing the story to unfold through zonal and atmospheric lighting and the actors who made scene changes seamless.

A truly wonderful piece of theatre at its best – Well done SSGS

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