Shuggy Boats – Live Theatre, Newcastle

Writer: Jacquie Lawrence

Director: Fiona MacPherson

Shuggy boats. Fairground attractions. Heave on the ropes, sway them back and forth. Designed to be rocked.

Which is how Maeve marks her 60th birthday, when the unexpected revelation that her schoolgirl crush was another schoolgirl rocks everyone’s boat.

Back then, “a long time before the Lesbian kiss on Brookside”, that fledgling romance fizzled out faster than the thrill of a fairground ride. But the ripples resurface decades later, sensations of “freedom, excitement and stomach flips” as the shuggy boats swing threaten to leave a family sea-sick.

Jacquie Lawrence’s new play ticks a lot of Tyneside boxes. It’s a female-led piece dominated by brash but brittle Geordie matriarchs (and no coincidence, surely, that Denise Welch, mother superior to them all, makes a fleeting guest appearance on screen). The scenes between Phillippa Wilson’s Maeve and her stage sister Angie (Libby Davison) capture complex relationships played out in the pubs and bingo halls of the region. One part battleaxe, one part laugh-it-off, yet with a top note of unexpected vulnerability, these are rounded and recognisable characters full of heart.

Both are dealing with trauma, from mourning to repressed sexuality. Both are ripe for an updated Shirley Valentine of a mid-life crisis (and yes, Lawrence’s script deftly pays its dues to Willy Russell). Both give this production a powerful emotional core.

Yet somehow, the play doesn’t quite satisfy. There’s enough humour and heart to smooth over some of the bumpier moments, but the romance arc around Maeve’s fledgling relationship with the mysterious Fingers Foster feels rushed. Fingers herself (Alicya Eyo), fresh from prison and going straight – as it were – might be a compelling story for another play but feels somewhat shoehorned into this one.

Similarly, the pregnancy subplot that emerges in the second act seems to wander offstage in the confusion. It generates a touching scene between Angie’s daughter Carolyn (Natalie Ann Jamieson) and Maeve’s flamboyantly gay himbo of a son, Ryan (Benjamin Story) before melting away like a sea fret on a spring morning.

The scenes between Ryan and his dad Jocka (Dave Johns, best known for his leading role in I, Daniel Blake) are more effective. In a female-led play, there’s an unexpected subtlety in the handling of two male characters struggling as their own certainties crumble.

On press night, the show got a strong reception. In the bar afterwards, audiences talked of the thrill of sharing a room full of like-minded people. But, not unlike a shuggy boat itself, the production touched the heights but swooped back down to earth all too quickly.

Runs until 21st March 2026