Viv Hardwick discovers that the world premiere of Flying Into Daylight in Newcastle is providing challenges for West End stars Summer Strallen and Jos Vantyler

THE world of theatre can produce all manner of unexpected challenges. The new play with a dance theme, Flying Into Daylight, features West End star and trained dancer Summer Strallen as a tango novice; West End actor and tango newcomer Jos Vantyler has to become her expert Argentinian teacher and Newcastle’s Live Theatre will stage the world premiere next month partly because the small venue with a growing world reputation just happens to have a three-week gap in its programming.

Talking to the two leads quickly reveals that the pair are looking forward to leaving London for the North-East run which is down to the appeal of appearing in a play written by Emmy-winning screenwriter Ron Hutchinson.

“I think I’m going to become a dancing novice with great difficulty, but I’m going to give it a go,” laughs Strallen, who was last seen on Tyneside in Ballroom to Broadway at Sage Gateshead, in March, with Strictly professional dancer Anton Du Beke.

“Actually, to be honest, my sister was in Hairspray, in Leicester, and played a girl who was terrible at dancing. So, I might take some lessons from her. It’s easy to look really rubbish when you’re trained because you know where to put your body to look bad,” adds the performer who has played Maria in The Sound Of Music and featured in Land Girls, Casualty, Doctors, Hotel Babylon and Hollyoaks on TV.

Strallen feels it is the passion element which ensures that Tango will attract the attention of cast and audience alike.

“It prides itself on not being too held and already become more intimate and because the steps are so intricate you get that kind of bubbly, fizzy feeling and when people watch it they feel they are being drawn into some kind of relationships. That’s why relationships on TV get people watching EastEnders and Coronation Street,” she adds.

“Maybe, it’s because I’m a dancer and have to lock into other people’s energy my whole life in doing partner work. It’s that element of fire and passion married with love which is what connects us,” she says.

And there’s a fine line between love and hate adds Strallen to illustrate the aggressive side of the dance performance. She took on the role of Virginia because she identified with the journey of self-discovery of her character.

“I did musicals for 12 or 13 years and would never shun them, but I wanted to make that change into doing more straight theatre, TV and film. I’d been dreaming about doing this for the past seven or eight years but has always gone with the snowball effect of musical theatre which has taught me sop much. After Top Hat in the West End I decided to take some time and space away from musicals and focus on straight stuff that, for me, was a massive leap to put myself out of my comfort zone and that’s exactly what Virginia is doing,” Strallen says.

Her character is enjoying comfortable mediocrity at an art auction house and is inspired by their work to take a leap into the dark. “That’s exactly what I’m doing and without sounding too LA about it, it will be a huge journey for us all,” she jokes.

The inspiration for Flying Into Daylight came from a conversation between playwright Hutchinson and actress Victoria Fischer when they were working together on his play Dead On Her Feet. She revealed that she’d gone off to Buenos Aires without knowing anyone there and speaking no Spanish while recovering from a thyroidectomy.

Hutchinson says he was inspired to write about the tango, thyroid cancer and artist Francis Bacon.

The art auction house element of the tale being the most fictional.

Strallen sees her character as escaping the Keeping Up Appearances Hyacinth Bucket side of life where you have “expectations of who you should be, rather than who you actually are”.

“Ron has developed Victoria’s story as an outline for something new and as far as Victoria is concerned I can take as much from her as I need but also use my own experiences and work with that as well,” says Strallen.

She’s pleased that Hutchinson has taken up an invitation to co-direct alongside Live Theatre’s artistic director Max Roberts with Lee Proud, who has worked on Billy Elliot the Musical, supplying the choreography.

“It’s brilliant to have the writer in the room. Sometimes, the writer has to sit back and you have to go to the director and ask to change something or other. We’ve got the luxury of being able to say something straight away a d nothing will be lost in translation and that is a real advantage for us. It’s a collaborative piece,” she says.

This will only be Strallen’s second straight play after A Midsummer Night’s Dream – which she fitted in while starring in The Boyfriend in the West end – where she starred alongside Sheridan Smith.

“Musicals have always come to me and I’ve been on a kind of rollercoaster and it’s brilliant to be able to throw myself in the deep end like this. But I wouldn’t want it any other way. I want a challenge in life rather than coasting.”

Her move into TV was highlighted by BBC’s Land Girls which she recalls being filmed really quickly, but having a brilliant time.

“Even though it was filmed quickly, you can still stop and ‘cut’ and go again. Whereas with this you have chunks of monologue that, if you dry, there’s no one else there to help you. Jos and I have agreed to learn each other’s lines so we can help each other out,” Strallen says about the two-hander where they play a range of parts.

“I do feel that people who appear in musical theatre can act on telly because there is still a myth that people who do musicals can’t act and I feel that acting through song is one of the hardest things you can do and I don’t mean to say ‘poor little us’ but it is more difficult to make the transition because of the stigma involved. Things are changing because people from TV are coming back to theatre.”

And how will she and Jos cope on the dancefloor?

“I’m sure it will be fine. I’m very bossy. Tom Chambers will be able to vouch for that,” says Strallen about her Top Hat co-star.

“It’s a baptism of fire and I wouldn’t have it any other way... and there’s always that pipedream that Flying Into Daylight can go international.”

Flying Into Daylight, Live Theatre, Newcastle, Thurs, November 27 to Sat, December 20. Box Office: 0191-232-1232 and live.rog.uk