Established in 1997 by North-Eastern playwright Peter Mortimer.
The Company’s aim is “to produce only new theatre, commissioned only from Northern writers and to take live theatre to places other theatre companies would not contemplate.”
Cloud Nine doesn’t do adaptations, the classics, or Shakespeare, all of which are well catered for elsewhere. It is the only company in the region totally committed to the work of northern writers.
Since 2011 the company has created a series of small-scale plays which have premiered at The Low Lights, the oldest pub in North Shields. We are now taking these productions into other venues such as Yoga Station, W Bay Football Club, the Surf Cafe in Tynemouth and Whitley Bay’s Comrades Club.
Please visit our blog page for details of all, our next productions
Funding for Cloud Nine comes at different times from Arts Council England, North Tyneside Council, East Coast Taxis and any other private sponsors we can sweet talk.
We are North Tyneside based, a non profit making limited company, and run by our ten-strong steering group.
A RUN OUT FOR THREE NEW PLAYS Around fifty people turned up at The Exchange on July 16 for our rehearsed readings of three new short plays from the region. Ten Minutes to Midnight by Daniel Crowe, Hospitality by Noreen Rees and It’s a Fair Cop by Carol Clewlow proved a contrasting threesome. They were performed by Dylan Mortimer, Zoe Hakin, myself and Daniel Crowe (who is an actor as well as a writer.) Ten
We’re delighted to offer up rehearsed readings, script-in-hand of three vastly different new short plays from North East dramatists. Details of the plays— TEN MINUTES TO MIDNIGHT by Daniel Crowe When English tourist Nigel is thrown off the train somewhere in central Europe for his drunken boorish behaviour he gets more than he bargained for in a meeting with a seemingly friendly local. HOSPITALITY by Noreen Rees A posh Newcastle hotel is given a
After the successful premiere of Fire & Water – The Thomas Brown Story last November there are moves to erect a monument to the young man in his native North Shields. The efforts of the 15 year old Thomas helped salvage the vital Enigma Code documents which led to the cracking of the code and a shortening by several months of World War Two. The play was seen by more than one thousand people at
After a successful run at The Exchange, North Shields, playing to almost full houses, here are the reviews of Peter Mortimer’s ‘Fire and Water.’ The first is by David Whetstone-https://www.culturednortheast.co.uk/2021/11/03/review-fire-and-water-at-the-exchange/ And this one is by Anna Ambelez-https://www.thereviewshub.com/fire-and-water-the-thomas-brown-story-the-exchange-north-shields/
Does Cloud Nine ever need sponsorship? This was the question that I nervously put to Pete Mortimer, never having met him before, at Live Theatre in Newcastle at an event one evening in 2005.
I set up my own law firm in 2002 and therefore was in the fortunate position to be able to help, even in a small way, my local professional theatre company to continue producing new and vibrant theatre productions.
As a solicitor, rather than an “arty type”, I did not know what I would be able to bring to the steering group, but I was sure that I wanted to be part of it.
My most memorable moment with Cloud Nine was the opening night of The Selkie at the Sage on 6 February 2008. We had a special sponsors event before the performance, our very own red carpet event, just without the red carpet! At one point in the evening I caught a glimpse of the reflection of everyone talking and laughing on the balcony before the performance and thought “wow” I helped make this happen!
Cloud Nine has now produced the work of 30 different playwrights. Its range of work includes a play walked and performed the length of the Roman Wall (Off the Wall), a short play performed for morning commuters on the Shields Ferry (Ships that Pass), a play centred on the Meadow Well riots of 1991 plus a four year programme of small scale new theatre performed at the Low Lights Tavern, North Shields, and other North Tyneside coastal venues.
Cloud Nine has been the recipient of funding from Arts Council England, Heritage Lottery Fund, Peggy Ramsey Foundation and North Tyneside Council. In 2015, Artistic Director of Cloud Nine, Peter Mortimer was named a finalist in the Journal Culture Awards Writer of the Year for his play, ‘Death at Dawn.’
