About

Real Theatre, Real People

Live Theatre is a new writing producing theatre based in Newcastle upon Tyne in the north of England since 1973. One of only a small number of dedicated new writing theatres situated outside London, it has produced a rich vein of new plays, writers, directors and actors for the rest of the theatre industry.

Live Theatre was formed to make original theatre based on the lives of its audiences and take that work out to places where people congregated such as community centres, clubs and pubs. The company now has a fantastic, well-equipped theatre to perform in and tours its work on a much broader scale. However the core purpose to make work with a distinctive voice that is challenging, popular and relevant to all remains as unchanged as ever.

Over the years the company's reputation for the artistic quality of its work has grown along with its proven ability to find, nurture and develop writing and acting talent. The role call of those who have worked with, and been supported by, Live Theatre is lengthy. One of the company's most illustrious alumni, Tony award winner Lee Hall sums up his special relationship thus

"I have a relationship with Live Theatre which is the envy of many playwrights and is probably unique in British Theatre. Live provides a "home" for its writers who come back again and again over the years whilst the theatre itself fosters new relationships which add to the fold. My relationship goes back 25 years to the inception of the company. Being brought up in the East End of Newcastle meant I was lucky enough to see many Live productions as I grew up. As far as I was concerned Live Theatre was theatre, and to me Tom Hadaway was as famous and important as Arthur Miller or Harold Pinter…throughout my childhood I was fascinated that I could see plays which were about the history of the area, or about characters I recognized from my own life and assumed that this must happen everywhere.

Well, having grown up and lived in many other places I realize that this is not the case. Live Theatre's dedication to writing about the place it is based in, forging a language with a unique identity is, I discover, a rare thing."