Kin at HOME Manchester - A conversation with writer Christine Mackie

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Sun 29 Sep 2024 - Sat 02 Nov 2024

Now he's gone, it's time to talk is the intriguing tagline of a play by actress and writer Christine Mackie , best known for her role as Dr. Susan Gaddas in Coronation Street.

She took the time to speak to Weekend Notes, to talk about her journey to writing KIN and getting it onto the stage. The dark comedy is currently enjoying a tour of select venues.



Christine said that the play is full of twists and turns in which uncomfortable family secrets are revealed after Robert McGregor's wife (Kay, played by Roberta Kerr) and sister (Steph, played by Kerry Wilson-Parry) get awkwardly reacquainted at his funeral.

She pointed out that her aim, informed by her own experience, was to have the older women as the main thrust of the action ... not a side peripheral role, plot device ... whose purpose is to serve the plot and the stories of younger protagonists.

Commenting about getting underway with the writing, during the the COVID-19 lockdown period, she said: "I started with this idea and dialogue and I could hear these women. The more I thought about them, the more I absolutely could hear their voices and so that was very freeing because I didn’t allow there to be any blocks in terms of the consequences of these conversations and where they might lead."

I asked if there were any other plays which had been guiding lights in the writing of KIN and Christine mentioned that Anthony Shaffer’s Sleuth, which was staged at West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds, when her daughter Harriet worked as a producer there, had been an inspiration because of its twists and turns and fast dialogue.

She was also inspired by the storytelling strengths of Charlotte Keatley's My Mother Said I Never Should by which Christine appeared in at The Dukes, Lancaster, in 2010

KIN, which had its first production at The Dukes in May 2022, had started its journey from page to stage at that same theatre. It was there that the work-in-progress was first performed to an invited audience who were able to give feedback. A process which Christine described as a great learning experience. The Dukes Chief Executive at the time, Karen O'Neill, offered to fully stage KIN if Christine could secure Arts Council funding - this duly arrived in the reward of a Lottery Grant.

KIN was not Christine’s first produced script. Suitably enough, given her current Coronation Street role, she wrote an episode of BBC daytime soap opera Doctors c. 25 years ago.

Even earlier than that, she was also recently reminded by an old school friend that, as a sixth former, she had written a 30-minute play for the drama club - something Christine had completely forgotten about.

More recently, in 2019, her play Best Girl won awards at the Manchester Fringe and subsequently travelled up to the Edinburgh Festival. It started as something of a family affair - kin of a different kind - when Christine’s daughter, Lois needed something to showcase her acting talents at a ‘scratch’ night at Manchester’s Hope Theatre. Christine then decided to develop Best Girl from a monologue to a full play.

I asked if, given her extensive TV experience - Downton Abbey, My Phone Genie, The Grand
to name just a few - any writers for the small screen had inspired her. She mentioned the current Coronation Street writers but also Ken Blakeson and Russell T Davies. She valued the latter’s advice to just keep writing and added that he is "a fantastic character writer, get to the point of it .. . absolutely drive to the nub of what your wanting to say, don’t wait, just get in there and say it.”

She said that Russell T Davies had been delighted to learn the news that KIN had secured funding and would be professionally staged.

Speaking about the tour ending at HOME, Christine said: "After all the inspiration I’ve got from getting to know people in Manchester who are making work, for me to be able to take KIN to HOME is just incredible for me, I'm very excited about that."

She mentioned Hull Truck as somewhere which also had a particular significance to her. She discovered a love for the theatre and the city, just north of the Humber, when she was cast in the wartime drama Dancing through the Shadows, in 2015.

Writing is obviously now an equal focus to acting for her, especially, as she pointed out, being in her 60s. "I’m cracking on . . . My mind is concentrated by the fact that I’m not in my 30s."

She hopes to develop Best Girl into a radio drama and has plans for a short film of her script Race for Life.

She also mentioned a TV script she has written, inspired by her own experience on the oche.

""If anybody wants a series about a ladies' darts team, they know where to come", she said.

As we wrapped up the interview she said that she was off to record an audiobook on the theme of village detectives. She obviously still needs something to do in between writing and listening to the health problems of Weatherfield's residents.

I could have said it was a rare privilege to have a 30-minute consultation with a doctor on a Saturday morning but she’s no doubt heard jokes like that many times before.



KIN is directed by Sue Jenkins and stars Roberta Kerr and Kerry Willison-Parry, who will be familiar to TV viewers and are both reprising their roles from the production’s premiere in 2022.

It is currently on tour before coming to HOME in Manchester between Tuesday 29th October to Saturday 2nd November.

HOME 2 Tony Wilson Place Manchester M15 4FN
Box Office 0161 200 1500
Suitable for ages 14+
Tickets from £10

Dukes Lancaster Sept 10th - 13th

Queens's Hall Hexham Sept 20th & 21st
Hull Truck Sept 25th
Theatre Clwyd Sept 3pth & Oct 1st
Alnwick Playhouse Oct 15th
HOME Manchester Oct 29th- Nov 2nd
KIN Audience Feedback Film



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