Jamie Eastlake’s Big Ange to premiere at Live Theatre in November

Big Ange written and directed by Olivier award-winning Jamie Eastlake to premiere at Live Theatre from Thursday 6 November 2025. Set in a forgotten town stitched together with broken bus shelters and fading murals of the past, the play explores growing up in a fractured world, with footy!

This is England, but skewed, off-balance, spinning. A teenage football squad charges through a world of projected noise, collapsing housing estates, graffiti glowing like prophecy. But one woman wants to change everything. Big Ange the dinner lady – blue jeans, a whistle and a Neil Diamond playlist – she’s got this!Bringing Eastlake’s characters to life are Joann Condon (Little Britain, The Office), comedian Gary Webster (I Daniel Blake, Sorry We Missed You), Curtis Appleby (Roxy and Cy, Offended), Erin Mullen (Gerry and Sewell, The Last Breath), Lucy Eve Mann (Yen) and Ashen Hazel (Fresh Air, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang).

Big Ange is presented by the team behind smash hit Gerry and Sewell, Eastlake Productions, and Live Theatre in association with Newcastle Theatre Royal.

“Live Theatre and its brilliant team have played such a key role in my journey,” said Jamie Eastlake, who was the founding artistic director at Laurels Theatre in Whitley Bay where Gerry and Sewell started its phenomenal two-year journey, which included a sell out run at Live Theatre and a four-night black and white takeover of Newcastle Theatre Royal. “From starting out on their playwriting course 15 years ago (wearing an ASDA hi-vis) to now being lucky enough to call this my job. That still feels surreal. Big Ange promises chaos, unexpected political heft, dancing dinosaurs and an unhealthy amount of Neil Diamond. I’m genuinely delighted.

Big Ange plays at Live Theatre Thursday 6 to Saturday 22 November. Tickets are available here.