The Prescotian

Shakespeare on the Mersey: A Globe for the North?

The 'Royle Family' actress Sue Johnston grew up in Prescot. Now she's backing plans for a Globe-style theatre in her old home town

Prescot is unrecognisable from when I was growing up there. It's a run-down town, but still has the most beautiful Jacobean church, built around the time Shakespeare was writing his first plays. Over the years, the town has been laid to waste, badly conceived and built around - a sad little place that has lost its soul. But it could find it again.

When David Thacker, former artistic director of the Young Vic who is spearheading plans to create a Globe Theatre in the North, rang me to tell me about the Shakespeare North project near Liverpool, it took me a while to realise he was talking about basing it in the place where I had grown up and gone to school - Prescot, in the borough of Knowsley.

Looking at his model of the town, with the old church and proposed Cockpit Theatre, was extraordinary. It felt like stepping back into my past. To think that the first purpose-built indoor theatre in Britain (and the only Elizabethan theatre outside London) had been sitting on our doorsteps - or, perhaps I should say, under our doorsteps - without us ever knowing about it. Of course, I wanted to get involved.

That there was an Elizabethan theatre in Prescot, The Playhouse, built along the same lines of the Globe Theatre, but with a roof, there is no doubt. It was built in the 1590s by a close associate of the Earls of Derby (or the Stanleys) of Knowsley Hall. They were major patrons of various groups of strolling players, including Derby's Men and Strange's Men. When Shakespeare escaped from the plagues and fire in the hell-hole that was London to stay at Knowsley Hall towards the end of the 16th century, it seems highly unlikely that he would have stayed at the hall with a group of actors without seeing his plays performed in the theatre.

I was not quite born in Prescot but went to infant, junior and grammar school there. I was in the first year that attended the new girls' grammar school, half of which was built on the Earl of Derby's land. The current Earl of Derby is now Shakespeare North's patron. And Prescot Grammar School for Girls was where I first learnt about Shakespeare. I had a wonderful teacher who made me want to become an actor. It's the old story, but appearing in a school play first made me realise that I wanted to act. I adored Shakespeare, as my father had always adored him. He could quote from all the plays - he had an extraordinary love of Shakespeare for a plumber.

Now, Prescot desperately needs regeneration, which is partly what the Shakespeare North project is about. The replica theatre would slot inside a complex of cinemas, restaurants, walkways, shops, education centres and a library.

It would bring life to this place. We're also hoping that it would bring tourism to the area and regenerate it in the same way that the Globe Theatre has done to the South Bank. If it does as well as the Globe, it could bring this town and the whole borough back to life.

We hope to emulate the Globe's education projects, too. When we were at school we had to travel to Manchester, Liverpool or Stratford-upon-Avon to see a production. There was nothing in Prescot. There is still nothing. I'd really like to see the kids in the area take an interest in the arts. I've always believed that art and drama can open up children's minds in a different way.

For this project, our hearts are in what we are going to do with the children of today, who seem to be either rather hopeless or violent. Building a theatre in Prescot is one way of dealing with them.

David Thacker is already working in schools. These are not easy schools - doing Shakespeare with kids in Kirkby and Huyton is not the kind of job you would wish on anyone. But the children love it. I saw two kids rehearsing Julius Caesar. First, they improvised about being soldiers in Iraq, then Davidintroduced the play and by the end they were reading the Shakespeare text for the first time, understanding it and loving it.

Some Stratford-based Shakespeareans have said that there is only a tenuous link between the Bard and Prescot, and we are using Shakespeare's name as backing for the bid. But most of the people that I know who work at the theatre at Stratford-upon-Avon are very keen. We're all thinking of ways in which we can put Shakespeare's lifeblood out through veins across the country. There's no denying that Shakespeare is one of our biggest tourist attractions. Plans are afoot to crisscross the whole country with these theatres so that it isn't all Stratford- and London-based, so that there can be another centre where Shakespeare can belong. Shakespeare North is part of a much grander scheme - not just a little theatre on its own.

Of course, there are always going to be people who think: "What good will this do?" These things are always a battle. I remember all the years that Sam Wanamaker spent trying to revive the Globe. People said that it would never work and that it was a waste of money. It took him half of his career to get people engaged in that project, and now it's the most wonderful place. It is always packed and the atmosphere around it is lovely. If you don't like the show, you can just sit there and think, "this is what it used to be like", or you can watch the groundlings - it's all part of the show. That's what I would love for Prescot.