Familiar faces to star in new play which premieres in South Tyneside

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

The cast includes several faces who are no strangers to the Mill Dam theatre’s stage, including stars of the much-lauded summer hits Geordie the Musical and The Dolly Mixtures.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The play 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.”

The play will showing from Wednesday, February 15 to Saturday, February 18.

Tickets are available priced £18, or £15 for concessions, from the box office on 0191 454 1234 or by logging on to www.customshouse.co.uk.