Preview: Five Dead No Bodies at South Shields Customs House

TOP CAST FOR NEW CUSTOMS HOUSE PRODUCTION

Five Dead No Bodies

South Shields Customs House

Wednesday 15^th - Saturday 18^th February 2017

The Customs House has announced the cast for the new play Five Dead No Bodies which will premiere at the South Shields theatre in February.

Five Dead No Bodies has been co-written by Susan Wear and Rob Lawson and concerns the Tyneside Times, a fictional local newspaper struggling to retain its circulation and relevancy.

The cast includes several familiar faces to The Customs House stage, including stars of the much-lauded summer hits Geordie the Musical and The Dolly Mixtures.

MICKY COCHRANE …

pictured second from left in Geordie the Musical,

will play the Editor in Five Dead No Bodies

You may recognise him as "Dave", the lad in the Tesco advert that cooks a curry for his wife, Dunston-born actor Micky Cochrane will play the role of the newspaper editor. Micky has been an actor since 2003 and has made numerous theatre and TV appearances. His small screen credits include George Gently, 55 Degrees North and Dogtown.  He is a regular at The Customs House most recently last year in Geordie the Musical. Micky was also the lead singer with popular local band ThisGroundMoves, who had a song used on TV’s CSI: New York.

The rest of the cast play multiple roles. Actor and singer Kylie Ann Ford, from South Shields, trained at Northern Stage after studying a Drama degree at Northumbria University. After completing her training at Northern Stage, she attended a clown training course in Barcelona. Kylie Ann is one third of the Shields-based vocal harmony group The Boardwalk Belles, and a regular performer at The Customs House, having appeared in the venue’s pantomime and most recently in The Dolly Mixtures.

Gary Goodyear has made many theatre and TV appearances since training at the Drama Studio in Ealing, including in the hit TV crime series A Place of Execution. He has toured theatres throughout the UK and across the north including Live, Northern Stage and Alphabetti. As well as performing in army camps, hospitals and prisons, he has developed themed works including a specially commissioned Loan Shark play for the National Illegal Money Lending Team and a therapeutic film for the military concerning soldiers returning home from combat.

CHRISTINA BERRIMAN-DAWSON …

One of the stars in hit musical The Dolly Mixtures

Christina Berriman-Dawson most recently appeared at The Customs House in The Dolly Mixtures and has many other theatre credits to her name, including Key Change, which toured off Broadway. She  has also appeared in the TV series George Gently, and feature films Electricity and The Magdalene Sisters.  Fatfield-based Christina trained at Northumbria University Live Theatre Academy.

Teesside-born actor Andy Berriman completes the cast.  Andy is also a successful film and theatre director and is making his debut at The Customs House.

Writer Susan was nominated for North East Writer of the Year for her play The Duke in the Cupboard, which was popular with Customs House audiences in October 2015. Rob was an evening newspaper editor for 16 years, editing both the Shields Gazette and the Sunderland Echo.

Five Dead No Bodies will be directed by Scott Young, Artistic Director at OddManOut Theatre Company. Scott said:  “We’re delighted to have such a great cast who are all very excited about taking on a brand new play and bringing it to life – especially when beneath the comedy it has such an important message about how we get the news that is so relevant to everyone in this so-called post truth era of fake news and confected stories.”

Tickets:

The play will be on at The Customs House from Wednesday 15^thFebruary to Saturday 18^th February. Tickets are available priced £18, or £15 for concessions, from the box office on 0191 454 1234 or by logging on to The Customs House’s new website at www.customshouse.co.uk.