Shandyland Northern Stage cast to include Denise Black

The cast and creative team for Northern Stage's Shandyland will include Denise Black, it was announced today.

Black will play pub landlady Sally, with William Ash as Mark, Steve Huison as Brendan, Vivienne Bell as Karen and Charlotte O'Leary as Amy. The cast is completed by Bobby Hirston (Al), Pip Chamberlin (Bill/ Phil), Maanuv Thiara (Joe/ Fazal) and Rebekah Hinds (Maude).

Bruntwood Prize-winning playwright Gareth Farr's world premiere will run at the Newcastle venue from 12 to 23 May, with a press night on 14 May, before touring to Liverpool Everyman Theatre from 27 May to 6 June, Oldham Coliseum Theatre from 9 to 20 June and York Theatre Royal from 23 June to 4 July.

The show was originally developed through The Old Vic 12 scheme and spans 20 years of a small, northern, family-run pub in an abandoned working-class community.

Hannah Banister will direct, with design by Rebecca Brower, lighting design by Lizzie Powell, sound design by Nick John Williams, dramaturgy by Selma Dimitrijevic and casting by Polly Jerrold.

Farr commented: "Shandyland deals with the divisions of a community and shines a light on what is happening within our often-overlooked working class towns. It is both a drama with charm and a comedy with punch. It has the heart of the working class running all the way through it. It celebrates a cast of lively, loveable and recognisable characters and asks what has happened over the past twenty years to make them feel so angry, unheard and forgotten."