Preview: All At Sea at Newcastle Live Theatre

All At Sea, 

Newcastle Live Theatre - Thursday 24 September - Saturday 10 October 2026

Scarborough Stephen Joseph Theatre - Friday 16 to Saturday 31 October 2026

A new dark comedy drawing on the notorious "Canoe Man" case is heading to Newcastle and Scarborough this autumn, with the casting for the two-hander now confirmed.

All At Sea, a fictionalised new play by North East playwright Alison Carr, premieres at Live Theatre in Newcastle from Thursday 24 September to Saturday 10 October, ahead of a transfer to the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough from Friday 16 to Saturday 31 October. The production is directed by Maria Crocker.

The story

The play centres on Colin and Deborah, a married couple weighed down by spiralling debt and an unmanageable mortgage. The couple's answer to their financial troubles is found in the North Sea: Colin fakes his death in a staged canoeing accident, leaving his widow Deborah to carry out a complex plan to secure the resulting insurance payout, manage family grief, and attempt to maintain something resembling a functioning marriage - all while aware that the real drama is still to come.

The piece is a gripping dark comedy that takes a deep dive into an audacious plan and an extraordinary deception, with Deborah caught up in a scheme that involves deceiving family and holding her nerve while awaiting the money, conscious that a single mistake could expose everything.

The casting

Colin is played by Phil Corbitt, whose theatre credits include Sunny Afternoon (National Tour), Kinky Boots (Storyhouse Theatre), Mamma Mia (National and International Tour), Calendar Girls (National Tour), The Tempest (Northern Broadsides tour, Beijing and Shanghai) and A Streetcar Named Desire (Europe, Hong Kong and Japan tours). In the play, Corbitt takes on the role of a desperate husband whose mounting debt pushes him towards faking his own death for an insurance payout.

Phil Corbitt

Deborah is played by Sarah Belcher, whose stage work includes The Crucible (Shakespeare's Globe), Hamnet (RSC/West End), The March on Russia (Orange Tree Theatre), Medea (Almeida Theatre), Twelfth Night (Filter/RSC), The Accrington Pals (Royal Exchange), further productions of Twelfth Night, The Tempest and The Comedy of Errors with the RSC, and The Weather Man (Opera North). Her character is described as the loyal wife and grieving widow who is drawn into the deception and forced to hold everything together as the plan unfolds.

Sarah Belcher

Director Maria Crocker said: "I am so excited to welcome Phil Corbitt and Sarah Belcher to the All At Sea team. This sharp and witty play requires two expert actors to bring this extraordinary couple to life, and this casting has delivered just that."

Creative team and presentation

The creative team behind the production includes Hannah Sibai on set and costume design, Catja Hamilton on lighting, and Roma Yagnik and Ziad Jabero on sound design and composition.

All At Sea is presented by Live Theatre and the Stephen Joseph Theatre in association with Laurels, and is supported by Newcastle-based architects SPACE.

Live Theatre in Newcastle has built its reputation as one of the UK's few dedicated new writing theatres outside London, having developed new work and new writers for over fifty years. The Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough, meanwhile, was the first professional theatre-in-the-round in the UK and is closely associated with the work of former artistic director Alan Ayckbourn, having staged the world premieres of almost all of his 92 full-length plays.

Tickets and offers

At Live Theatre, tickets range from £23 to £38, with concessions available from £13 and a £12 price for the first preview performance. The production is also included in Live Theatre's multi-buy offer alongside three other shows in its season — Astell & Woolf, Where Do All The Kittiwakes Go At Christmas? and The Most Famous Tree In The World. Audiences buying tickets to two of the four productions save 10%, three productions bring a 20% saving, and tickets to all four qualify for a 30% discount, applied automatically at the basket stage on full-priced tickets.

All At Sea runs in Live Theatre's Main Auditorium, with the box office reachable on (0191) 232 1232 or online at https://www.live.org.uk/whats-on/all-sea.