Review by Stephen Stokoe
Shuggy Boats | Live Theatre | 10th March 2026
It was a pleasure to be back at Live Theatre for what seems to be the first in a very long time. Tonight it was to see Shuggy Boats – a comedy by Jacquie Lawrence which invites the audience to the ride of their lives. This is a story set in the north east, with characters (largely) for the north east and actors hailing from the north east and that alone from my point of view is reason to recommend it. However, as my companion this evening pointed out, the term “Shuggy Boats” quite appropriately does not travel very far south so for the benefit of those readers a shuggy boat is what you might call a swing boat.
They put me in mind of lazy days of my youth huddling on north east beaches behind wind-breakers, of flasks of the weirdest tasting tea from questionably tartan coloured flasks and dodging kamikaze seagulls hell-bent on pinching your chips. It was with these memories that I entered the theatre and I was soon shaken from my boyhood reveries with a mind blowing revelation from the main cast. That is not to say that the cast under the watchful direction of Fiona Macpherson does not lean into the history of the north east but the story set, as it is, in 2021 certainly focuses the mind much more in the present day.
We join the action with main character Maeve (Phillippa Wilson) looking wistfully out to sea. The image is unmistakably presented with a superb set (Alison Ashton) and lighting (Sam Vivash) work from the creative team. The whole design of the piece is wonderfully evocative and there is an awful lot to look at even before the action starts so get yourselves in to have a gander at the Tynemouth hostelry that is Shuggy’s. We are then taken back a few hours to understand the cause of her solitude. She has just attended a party celebrating her own 60th birthday in which friends and family have gathered by all manner of means to help her mark this special occasion. There is a rather lovely device used by Macpherson here to suggest that the audience are the party attendees which works on a number of levels and the theme is carried on throughout the production.
As part of the celebrations they play a game not dissimilar to Mrs & Mrs in which the invited guests are asked question about the guest of honour which elicits a response that causes shock waves throughout the assembled throng. Maeve’s first kiss was not with her high school sweetheart husband as most would have guessed but with a female school chum, Helen (played on screen by Charlie Hardwick.) It is impossible not to mention the other famous local names to appear during this birthday party which include Denise Welch, Si King – the hairy biker, and a little later, Barbara Heslop as an erstwhile and delightfully bonkers friend.
The first act of the play has a lot to get through to set up the second and even then the pace does not let up. There is the main focus of Maeve’s coming out and the subsequent separation from her Mastermind obsessed husband, Jocka (Dave Johns.) The turbulence caused by moving in with her feckless and sexually active gay son, Ryan (Benjamin Storey) and the somewhat tempestuous relationship with her sister Angie (Libby Davison.) Alongside this are stories of missed opportunities, sexual promiscuity, social deprivation, alcoholism and a random but very amusing, never seen horse made all the better by its eastern European owner (played by the incredibly busy and versatile Soroosh Lavasani.)
There are laughs aplenty in this heart-warming story of understanding oneself, of acceptance and of families coming together in times of need. There is also thought gone into some of the messages the play offers with a theme of loss and grief both actual and in a less tangible sense. There are some very warm moments between Ryan and his father who are drawn closer together by the circumstances. Thrown into the mix is an unexpected pregnancy for Angie’s daughter, Carolyn (Natalie Ann Jamieson) and their fraught relationship. Add to that the blossoming love between our sexagenarian protagonist and former Jailbird Fingers Foster (Alicya Eyo) and it all gets a little too much.
That said, the voices from the playwright are very authentic, there are some wonderful one-liners particularly from Ryan and Auntie Angie, and the story is a very enjoyable one which may have played better over a limited series where the storylines and characters could have been more fully developed.
Shuggy Boats is unashamedly northern and works because of it. The set and lighting are very effective, the cameos from local celebrities bring a smile to the face and the big gay finale is wonderfully camp. It is well worth a watch.