Papatango today announce a brand-new Autumn tour of Chris Foxon’s adaptation of The Watch House, based on the novel by Robert Westall. This will follow the opening of Some Demon by Laura Waldren – this year’s winner of the Papatango New Writing Prize, at the Arcola Theatre in June.
The 12-venue engagement opens at Alnwick Playhouse on 24 October, touring to Poole, Dorchester, Swanage, Lyme Regis, Plymouth, Exeter, Leeds, Marsden, Hexham, and Middlesbrough before completing its run at Cullercoats Watch House on 16 November, with a special staged reading as a fundraiser for the Grade II listed life brigade look out, now community hub, part of the local Tyneside maritime network which inspired Westall’s novel.
Chris Foxon said today, “Robert Westall was the first writer to win two Carnegie Medals, yet he often seems to be overlooked. Too Geordie? Too working-class? I firmly believe he should be regarded as a national treasure – so a national tour feels only fitting. I can’t wait to visit the people and places touched on in his story of a seaside haunting.”
Published by Methuen, The Watch House premiered at Laurels Theatre in Westall’s native North Tyneside in December 2023, enjoying a sold-out run. The production was made with support from Tynemouth Volunteer Life Brigade – an iconic heritage centre and setting of the story, which has a significant place in the UK’s maritime history as the forerunner of today’s Coastguard.
Once a coastguard station renowned for daring rescues, the old Watch House is now all but abandoned. Just like Anne, dumped here while her parents sort their divorce. She’s never felt more alone. But she isn’t…
Sunk deep in the past is a secret which threatens everything. Only Anne can stop it. Catapulted on an adventure through graveyards, discos and shipwrecks, she and her eccentric crew must uncover the truth before it’s too late.
Olivier Award-winners Papatango present a funny, thrilling adaptation of Robert Westall’s classic ghost story.
