‘This house isn’t unfit for habitation. We’re inhabiting it. It’s been habitated for 100 years!’
1951 saw a third of County Durham’s villages classified as ‘D’. They were no longer deemed worthy of investment and were expected to die quietly. But they wouldn’t.
A Way Home is a new play rooted in the stories and memories of the very people who called those D villages home. A County-wide fight lasting over 25 years becomes a 12-month journey at Bet’s kitchen table as she confronts what loss really looks like.
With humour, tenderness and not a small amount of grit, A Way Home speaks of fighting to be heard when no one’s listening, telling a story just as significant today as it was 70 years ago.
Having secured Arts Council England funding, and with support from Sunday for Sammy, Catherine Cookson Trust and Newcastle University, we were due to tour the North East in June 2020. The Covid-19 pandemic has meant that, like so many other projects, A Way Home has been put on hold. But we have a wonderful cast and creative team in place and tour venues are confirmed for June 2022. We can’t wait to see you then!
In the meantime, to see what happened during our Research and Development in January 2019, take a look here.
