THOSE with claustrophobia look away now. Newcastle’s little-known Victoria Tunnel is about to become an unlikely theatre venue next month, with a maximum audience per show of 25.

The idea of returning the tunnel, which was originally built as a 19th Century wagon-way to transport coal from Spital Tongues Colliery to the Tyne, to its final role of Second World War bomb shelter came from Katie Gibson, daughter of Middlesbrough FC’s chairman Steve.

“The tunnel is a hidden gem which maybe no one knows is there. I’ve got a lot of Tyneside friends who I’ve spoke to about it and these lifelong Geordies don’t know where it is,” says Katie about the venue tucked away behind the Quayside’s Hotel du Vin in City Road.

As theatre company founder, producer, writer and cast member of Twenty Seven Productions (a name inspired by the project), Katie has had to become Victoria as an actor to appear in Hitler’s Headquarters.

“It’s partly an Equity thing regarding my name. I heard about the tunnel through my fiancé – the Newcastle-born Buddy Holly-playing Glen Joseph. His father, Dan Robinson, who works in the tunnel and he took me down and I thought it would be a fantastic place for a show. It was really atmospheric and with history comes drama and there had to be some truth we could pull out of the 200 years it’s been there,” she says.

With the help of the Ouseburn Trust, who have re-opened the tunnel, Katie has turned her idea into dramatic reality in six months.

“I suppose you have a fine line of wanting to do it and saying, ‘I’m doing it’. The trust take people down the tunnel for tours and can handle more, but because a lot is happening in the show I didn’t want people to be overwhelmed. You have to wear a hard hat and there are some uneven surfaces and sometimes there is moisture. You descend down a ramp into semi-darkness and everything you see is as it was built. It is 100 per cent safe, but we’re trying to make it as comfortable for the audience as possible,” she says.

There is a controversial aspect to Hitler’s Headquarters, which will have a five-strong cast offering two performances a day from September 28 to October 11.

“Our piece focuses on why it (Tyneside) wasn’t bombed more. There was a rumour going around that suggested that maybe the Germans were purposely laying off the North-East because it was so close to water. If they were overly confident of winning the war that wanted to preserve the likes of Liverpool, Middlesbrough and Newcastle for import and exports of munitions and goods. Even though there were some direct hits there weren’t a lot. So, we put a different slant on what happened. Roughly, 7,000 people went into the tunnels every night and inside our tunnel are blast walls to protect the civilians from any nearby blasts. The tunnel was crucial to keeping Newcastle going and alive,” says Katie.

Although it originally ran from the Town Moor to the river, this is now a tunnel with only one door. “When it was an air raid shelter in the war it had lots of different entrance points throughout the city to keep as many people safe during bombing. As time has gone on all of the other entrances have been bricked up due to vandalism or people not knowing what they are or the council changing the building that originally linked to the tunnel. There are lots of doors to nowhere and we do gesture to them,” says Katie.

“Once you get down the tunnel you are in 1941 and there’s a clear-cut moment when you are in. All the characters we play are people who lived at that time and we feel it will be a unique experience for the audience. As well as being producer I play Charlotte Horner and we’ve been in touch with her family to get to know her. Charlotte was married to Jimmy Horner and they lived on the plot of land where the tunnel entrance is today. They weren’t given much notice. People just turned up and started battering through to the tunnel. We bring to life a lot of people who are no longer with us, but definitely have a story to tell,” she adds.

Katie and Glen got engaged at Newcastle Theatre Royal and currently live in London, but she feels a theatre company like Twenty Seven Productions has a better future in the North.

“This is my first baby where I’ve not had a co-producer or external producer come in and help. I’ve written it and Glen is directing and I’ve casting and appearing. So I’m multi-tasking. I think it would have been rather unimaginative to cast Glen and I in the same show, He’s a fantastic actor, but part of my ethos is to give new and young actors a platform,” Gibson says.

She feels theatre in the North-East is limited and wants to provide people with something new and exciting based around her experiences with the November Club which specialises in site-specific productions.

“I’d love to produce a Newcastle Theatre Royal show, but for the time being we are definitely trying to shine a light on anything that could be of interest in the North-East,” says Katie, who studied at the city’s Northumbria University.

She’s never thought of her life being dominated by her father’s millions flowing into Middlesbrough FC.

“We do everything together and there is no second place for us. We talk about football and about Rockliffe, but if you’d have told me before that he’d run a hotel I’d have said, ‘Yeah sure, he’s just going to have his company and football’. But he loves creativity and as soon as I said I was starting a production company he like, ‘Yes, do it’.

“I think every good company is formed off the back of very little and I wanted to do this myself. He can come in later if he fancies, but for now it’s just me and my savings. Hopefully, I can make a bit of money and put that back into the company.”

Is a 30,000 show at Middlesbrough’s Riverside stadium the ultimate ambition?

“It would be good to combine the two, but I think I’ll have my dad on my heels about that.”

n Performances are an hour and run at 4pm and 7pm. Tickets are £15 for adults and £10 for concessions. Box Office: http//twentysevenproductionsuk.com

n Since 2010 the Ouseburn Trust has operated guided tours with fully trained volunteer guides.

Ticket prices for tours are £6 for adults and £3 for children (under 12 years).

There are tours on days and times to suit almost everyone, including some one hour tours for families during holiday periods and some Late one-hour tours on Saturday, August 8, which include £1 off first pint at The Ship Inn next to our office (Arch 6) Stepney Bank.

To book by phone: 0191 261 6596 9am-5pm Monday – Friday or email questions to the Tunnel Co-ordinator, clive.goodwin@ouseburntrust.org.uk