Viv Hardwick chats to Torben Betts about adding his weight to Newcastle's political landscape

ON eve of what looks likely to be another impossible-to-call general election, North-East playwright Torben Betts will be finishing off his play about fictional ex-Labour minister Tom Savage being parachuted into one of the region’s seats just before the big vote.

Will he be attempting to forecast the result on stage at Newcastle’s Live theatre when the world premiere, directed by artistic director Max Roberts, runs from Wednesday, April 22, to Saturday, May 19?

“I guess it’s looking at some of the issues that have happened to the Labour Party and what does it stand for. A lot of my plays centre on that, but this is specifically about a prospective Labour MP coming up to Newcastle. He’s a middle-class London socialist, but he voted for the Iraq War in 2003 and can’t quite forgive himself,” says Betts.

His fallen minister is struggling with an alcohol problem and his lovelife is in a bit of a state.

“It could be a metaphor for what’s gone wrong with the British left-wing,” jokes Betts, who claims he didn’t have a specific politician in mind when he set out to write the play.

“He’s just someone who was raised as a good socialist and his parents had been involved in the setting up of the welfare state after the war. Basically, he was part of the New Labour movement and not really liked where it’s gone since Blair, but gone along with it and toed the party line. Now, he can’t forgive himself for a catastrophic decision,” he adds.

The plot involves Savage arriving at a Tyneside hotel bar at midnight where he faces a newly-teetoal barman and a “criminally-attractive” woman, if such descriptions are allowed in the new politically-correct landscape.

Most of Betts’ plays examine the movement of socialism to centre ground since the days of former leader Neil Kinnock, but this is the first time he’s focused on a particular politician.

“Savage’s lost faith in where his party is and his psychologically conflict is at the centre of the play,” he adds.

I ask if this doesn’t make the playwright sound pessimistic about the Labour Party’s future.

“I was a member of the Labour Party from my early 20s, but I found the whole Blaire regime pretty foul even before he did what he did. I guess they are the lesser of two evils, but the brakes have to put on what’s going on at the moment. It’s terrifying, is my personal view, but when you’re a playwright you can’t use the theatre to put over your message. It’s more of an exploration of ideas,” he says.

On the timing of the world premiere, Betts says: “I said to Max that as there was an election coming up I was interested in the idea of politician with grave misgivings and other characters in the play also going along with what they might not feel comfortable about in order to get on with their careers. Most institutions are like that – where you don’t speak out when you wish you had done.”

The playwright’s main hope is that the play will get a reaction from the drama rather than to political affiliations.

Betts has been based in Berwick for the past ten years, and has previously written about the North-South divide which he feels is widening.

“The other thing my new play is about is class because you have a London MP trying to take a seat in the North-East when he doesn’t understand the area or the people,” he says.

The play will have been opened for a week before the General Election result is known, but the playwright isn’t happy about the thought of his work ensuring that people go out to vote in Newcastle.

“This could be happening anywhere, the play’s not specific to Newcastle. If you overlay a play with too many local references if becomes more difficult to take somewhere else,” Betts says.

“Ukip are mentioned and also the media role in the election. I don’t know what’s going to happen in May, but I’m fearful that whoever gets in that the juggernaut of capitalism is taking us to hell in a handcart. Some of my sympathies lie with Russell Brand, although he doesn’t believe in voting.”

Next Betts is adapting Chekov’s The Seagull for the Regent’s Park Theatre and another new play is on the way as well as a film called Downhill.

“I’m interested in problems that people have, rather than reinventing the romcom,” he jokes.