Beyond Caring
A GALA DURHAM & QUEEN'S HALL ARTS CENTRE co-production
BEYOND CARING
by CHRISTINA CASTLING
Directed by JONLUKE MCKIE
“Older people, they’re still people. Like you and me. Just a bit, well, baggier around the edges.”
Meet Queenie, Elaine and Alex, resident, relative and carer at Cedar Point Care Home. A place where the corridors roar with laughter and ache with sadness and where outrageous antics mingle with tough conversations. Beyond Caring is a powerful new play that takes a frank, humorous and heartbreaking look at life behind the doors of a care home. Based on interviews with residents, relatives and staff, this play uncovers the reality of caring for others, looking after ourselves and getting older.
"I don’t know what I pictured, but it wasn’t this. Having to let go, bit by bit until, well – I’ve let go of so much, I’m not quite sure what’s left to hold on to."
Creative Team
Christina Castling - Writer
Christina is a playwright based in County Durham. Her writing has depth and playful honesty, often asking questions about belonging, identity and home. Her first full length play, A Way Home, toured the North East in June 2022. Other writing includes: Waiting for Gerald (longlisted for BBC’s InterConnected), The Last Word (winner of Trinity College London’s Playwriting competition) and Instructions Not Included (Northumberland Theatre Company). Christina is also an experienced facilitator and regularly delivers workshops and training.
Jonluke McKie - Director
Jonluke McKie is a director and theatremaker based in the North East of England, and a graduate of the National Theatre’s Step Change Programme. Directing credits include A Way Home by Christina Castling, Fat Chance by Rachel Stockdale, Into Thin Air, co created with Allison Davies and Precious Cargo Theatre, The Last Drop and When She Went by Beth Coverdale and One Small Case by Paddy Campbell for Holocaust Memorial Day, with Curious Monkey Theatre. As a performer Jonluke recently toured his first solo show, The Devil Danced in Our Eyes, cowritten with Allison Davies across the North East of England. Jonluke also works as a freelance drama facilitator, specialising in work with children and young people, collaborating with various organisations including Live Theatre, Seven Stories, St Oswald’s Children’s Hospice and Northern Stage.
Ellie Light - Designer
Ellie is a designer and maker for theatre and screen, she trained at LIPA and is based in Liverpool/North West. Design credits include: Of All The Beautiful Things In The World (Manchester HOME); Top Girls (Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse); Masquerade (Epstein Theatre/Bill Elms Productions); A Very Odd Birthday Party (Hawkseed Theatre/UK Tour); Dogs (New Step Theatre/Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse); Cherry Jezebel (Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse); Against (MMU School of Theatre); On The Shore of the Wide World (MMU School of Theatre) and Pig (Liverpool Royal Court Studio).
Judi Earl as Queenie
Theatre credits include: Key Change (Open Clasp/ Edinburgh Festival/New York transfer/ UK Tour and BAC); A Nightingale Sang, Charlie’s Trousers, The Last Post and Smack Family Robinson, (Live Theatre, Newcastle); Sweeney Todd, Twelfth Night, King Lear, The Birthday Party and Henry IV part 1 (Contact Theatre Manchester); extensive credits with Bruvvers Theatre Company, Soldiering On (Gala Durham); Food and Feuds, Hannah Glasse Saves the Nation (November Club); Pod and Tree (Alphabetti Theatre); A Viking Christmas (Alnwick Playhouse and Queen’s Hall Arts Centre) and Wind In the Willows (Queen’s Hall Arts Centre). Television credits include: Hospital People (BBC/Roughcut); Vera (ITV); Joe Maddison’s War (Mammoth/ITV); Distant Shores (ITV); Cookson adaptations: A Dinner of Herbs, The Tide of Life and The Moth, Our Friends in the North (BBC); Byker Grove (BBC/Zenith) and Harry (BBC). Feature film credits include: The One and Only and The Other Possibility. Radio credits include: South on the Great North Road, Stories for Another Day, Posties, The Five of Us, War Zone, Higher Education and The Golden Lady (BBC Radio 4).
Jacqueline Phillips as Elaine
Jackie is delighted to be back working with the team that brought A Way Home to audiences in 2022. She grew up in Peterlee, Co Durham, was a member of the NYT and trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. She has been an actor for over 30 years.
Recent theatre include: Worlds Apart (Woven Nest at Northern Stage); Brassed Off [Gala Durham); A Way Home (CaroleW Productions); Tree, Sucking Eggs and Floorboards (AlphabettI Theatre, Newcastle); Food and Feuds (November Club); Networking (Live Theatre, Newcastle); Twelfth Night, Merchant of Venice and Taming of the Shrew the International Summer Tour 2018 (Shakespeare’s Globe) and Butterfly - one woman show national tour (Little Cog and Stockton Arc).
Film credits include: Verity’s Summer, The Gathering; Bridget Jones’ Diary, The Man Who Knew Too Little.
Television credits include: Inspector George Gently, Vera, The Dumping Ground, Joe Maddison’s War, Emmerdale, Byker Grove, The Night Detective, Casualty, Picking up the Pieces and Sharman.
Radio credits include: The Pitman Flappers (New Creatives Dramas BBC Sounds); Home Front (BBC) and Fearless (BBC).
Rosie Stancliffe as Alex
Rosie is an actor and voice coach, trained at The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. She is an Associate Artist of Alphabetti Theatre with credits including Christmas Cabaret, How Did We Get To This Point, Continuum, The Rooms: Meat Factory. Other theatre includes Worlds Apart (Woven Nest); ROAD (Northern Stage); Locker Room Talk (Live Theatre); Leaving (Curious Monkey, Northern Stage & UK Tour); Overdue (Coracle Productions); Make Do & Mend (Changing Relations, Regional Tour); Shakers, And A Nightingale Sang (less is MORE, Middlesbrough Theatre).
TV & Radio include Danny & Mick (CBBC); Vera (ITV); Suffrage Dramas, Beware the Kids (BBC Radio 3).
