In The Bench, the action moves from pitch to park as Jeff Brown tells Colin Young
Jeff Brown is familiar to TV audiences across the North East – and now he’s taking his latest play to every nook and cranny of England’s football hotbed.
As presenter of news and sport on BBC Look North, Jeff has been in people’s living rooms, day and night for almost 30 years. He’s semi-retired now – allegedly – but still helps out with Monday night’s sports bulletin.
Meanwhile, Jeff’s new drama The Bench opens its 17-venue tour in Durham on May 22: “Basically it’s a boy meets girl story,” he says. “But people tell me it’s got a bit more depth to it…”
A former local football writer in thrall to the beautiful game, Jeff studied playwriting online through Newcastle’s Live Theatre nearly ten years ago. His first foray into the genre, Cornered, had not long completed its first run when Jeff started his latest work.
Cornered was the tale of Sunderland-born David Corner and the traumatic impact on his life after his mistake led to his team’s defeat in the 1985 League Cup Final. The monodrama opened at The Customs House in South Shields and went on a brief regional tour in 2017.
Two years ago, Jeff returned to The Customs House for a short run with The Bench – and he’s now assembled four of the original cast, led by producer Carole Wears and director Olivia Millar-Ross, to take the show across the North East and Cumbria for the next month.
After five shows and three nights at the Gala Theatre in Durham, the production calls at community centres, village halls, theatres and playhouses, and even Jeff’s old school in Sunderland.
Jeff was helped by former schoolmate and actress Melanie Hill, fellow playwriting wife Susan and their daughter Alice Stokoe, now a well-known actress, as well as local playwright Ed Waugh.
“I kept leaving it and coming back to it. After the 2021 Euros, and the backlash against Saka and his Black teammates who missed their penalties, I realised that this was part of a much bigger story.”
“The Bench is based around a Black footballer, who’s originally from Africa, raised in France and gets a transfer to an unnamed but ailing North East Premier League team.”
“He arrives in January and because he’s halfway through the season, he’s got no mates and he’s struggling. He spends a lot of time on a park bench, which is where he meets a white single mum, who’s on benefits, and they keep meeting up on the bench.”
“They appear to have nothing in common but she’s a lost soul on the breadline, and he’s a lost soul with money coming out of his ears.”
“I made him a Black footballer and a white woman, because I liked the contrast. When I was at school in the ’70s in Sunderland, there was only one Asian family.”
“It’s a lot more diverse across the region now, thank goodness, but I think if you’re a Black person in the North East, you can still face challenges.”
“So it’s also about how he handles the racism and the kind of abuse all footballers get, but Black players more than most. That’s given it a little bit of a harder edge.”
“If it can have any sort of lasting impact, that’s incredible, really. It’s just such a lovely spin-off. The best advice for any writer is to write about what you know… but it’s a love story, really – it just happens to have football at the heart of it.”
The Bench is being supported by the Gala Theatre, Show Racism the Red Card and the North East Combined Authority who are co-funding a Learning Activity from the play which will be taken into schools. Show Racism the Red Card will also have a presence at every show.
“I’m forever indebted to The Customs House for giving it its first break. When we first put the cast together and received their feedback after the first read through, it lifted the script several levels, from something that I knew was alright, to something with their input, that was great; they all totally invested in it. They loved it.”
“It got such a good response, and the reviews were overwhelming, really, that so many people said, you can’t just end it there, because that’s what happens with plays.”
“Tony Mowbray came to see it when he was Sunderland manager and he loved it. I’d invited him because I knew it was the sort of thing he’d be interested in and he wanted to bring the whole squad to show them the other side of football – but it was the last performance of the run and they had a match the next day!”
“I think the nicest line out of any reviews was, ‘You don’t have to be a football fan to enjoy this’.”
Jason Njoroge revises his role as Adi, the new signing, along with Hannah Marie Davis, who plays local girl Vicky, plus Abigail Lawson and Dan Howe. Experienced Wallsend-born actor David Nellist has joined the cast as football agent Mike.
The cast has been rehearsing at Durham’s Gala ahead of opening night on May 22, and then hit the road – heading up to Cumbria and down to Teesside before finishing back at The Customs House in South Shields.
Jeff adds: “The loveliest thing on the first day was that they were just so excited to be back together, so invested in the piece. And I know that will show through in their performances.”
“It’s a great challenge for the actors because we’re starting off in a wonderful big theatre like the Gala, and then we’ve got a couple of community centres and village halls, so it’s going to be a great learning curve.”
The Bench opens at the Gala Theatre, Durham, on Thursday, May 22, with five shows until Saturday, May 24. The tour then moves around the region, calling at Middlesbrough Town Hall on June 4, Newcastle Live Theatre (June 11-14) and The Customs House in South Shields on June 20-21.
