Recreating TV classic Boys from the Blackstuff on the stage

Following sold-out seasons at Liverpool’s Royal Court and the National Theatre, and in London’s West End at the Garrick Theatre, James Graham’s stage adaptation of Alan Bleasdale’s TV classic plays the Theatre Royal Brighton from June 17-21.

It’s ‘80s Liverpool. Chrissie, Loggo, George, Dixie and Yosser are used to hard work and providing for their families. But there is no work and there is no money. What are they supposed to do? Work harder, work longer, buy cheaper, spend less? They just need a chance. Life is tough but the lads can play the game. Find the jobs, avoid the ‘sniffers' and see if you can have a laugh along the way.

Sian, who is playing the head of the fraud department and also Dixie's wife on the tour, said: “I remember it being on TV and my dad loving it. He wasn't a road layer but he worked in the docks and he lost three jobs under the Thatcher government, my dad, and I grew up in a house where dad was always trying to figure out how to flip the 50 pence metre for the electricity so we wouldn't have to pay. I grew up in the aftermath of him losing work and trying to do all sorts of things to get work and do whatever he could.

“The adaptation has taken the old stories, and I would say that the only character that has really been developed a bit more is the Loggo character. The Yosser character in general is very close to the series but I do think that we look at men’s mental health very differently now. I would say the whole thing is about community and about family and about heart and humour and how Liverpool no matter what is thrown at it manages to come through. It is about a city united in poverty and in struggle but also a city united in its successes. It's like Liverpool is the sixth character in all this. The city has gone through so much but it has never turned on its own. It has never turned against itself. People struggle but they get through and I think it's a play about that. And it's also a play about men's mental health and the struggles they went through. Alan Bleasdale said when it was first created for the Royal Court that he had underwritten the women originally, and actually it is quite difficult playing the women in this show. I wish I had more to do in the moment as my character Freda. Freda is married to Dixie. She has a big comedy turn in the second act where she is locked in the house terrified of the sniffers (the fraud team) coming round. I only have two scenes with Freda and I do wish I had more opportunity with her.

“But it's been a great tour. We started rehearsals on January 6 for three weeks and we started on February 1, and it's gone down really well. I'll be sad when it finishes but it has been quite tough touring, living out of a suitcase. That side has been a little bit harder than I thought it would be but I will miss it. It has been brilliant. It was great in Liverpool and it was lovely in Birmingham, and everywhere we have been we've had a good response but playing Liverpool with it was something else. To bring it back to the home city with a new cast was great.”