STAGE REVIEW: Gerry & Sewell @ Theatre Royal, Newcastle (02.10.24)

Images by Von Fox

Following previous sold-out runs at Laurel’s in Whitley Bay and at Live Theatre in Newcastle in 2022 and 2023 respectively, Jamie Eastlake’s adaptation of Jonathan Tulloch’s novel The Season Ticket and of Mark Herman’s film Purely Belter is back again, this time for six performances at Newcastle’s Theatre Royal, the biggest and grandest stage yet for this production, proving that in the 24 years that have passed since the film’s release, the love felt for it and its characters is still strong in the region. 

The stage production is set in 2019 during the final year of Mike Ashley’s ownership of Newcastle United and inseparable best friends Gerry (Dean Logan) and Sewell (Jack Robertson) are jobless, skint and desperately trying to raise the funds needed to fulfil their ultimate dream: purchasing season tickets for their beloved Newcastle United. How will they do so? Well by any means necessary; fishing scrap out of muddy lakes in an attempt to sell to the local madcap rag and bone man or looting local shops and homes. 

Gerry and his sick mother (Michelle Heaton) are moving from council house to council house to evade their abusive father and husband (Bill Ward). Sewell is living with his ageing grandfather who is showing signs of Alzheimer’s. They have no prospects and no money, and Gerry’s estranged sister Bridget (Erin Mullen) is nowhere to be seen, having fled the family home due to their father’s abusive nature. The pair have nothing to speak of, but they do have each other and they do have Newcastle United. Football is certainly at the heart of this comedy-drama but it’s also about friendship, perseverance in the face of adversity and continuing to dream despite 12 years of Tory austerity and decades of successive governments ravaging a region (and a country) leaving some of its inhabitants feeling abandoned and deserted.

Becky Clayburn portrays a range of additional characters in an impressively flexible and adaptable performance, many of which provide comedy that is so on the nose that the characters feel more like caricatures. This, coupled with a surprising number of amusing song and dance routines and frequent breaking of the fourth wall from Robertson who is endearing and hysterically funny, may threaten to soften too much the more serious and bleak dramatic elements of the book and film – but only if it were not balanced out sufficiently. Thankfully this proves not to be the case due to some show-stopping and emotional performances in the second act, especially from Logan and Mullen who are both magnificent. 

Purely Belter could easily have been a low-budget British film that was quickly forgotten and perhaps it is not quite so well remembered in other parts of the country. In Newcastle however it remains a part of the cultural psyche. It feels familiar and relevant even now. Gerry & Sewell brings Purely Belter (and The Season Ticket) into the present day and breathes new life into its lungs. If football is about bringing people together and uniting them in a shared passion, then surely the same can be said for theatre. Whether you share that same passion for football or not, Gerry & Sewell can bring audiences together with a production that, at its heart, is about solidarity, fellowship, aspiration and hope. 

Gerry & Sewell is at Theatre Royal, Newcastle until Saturday 5^th October.