This year’s Christmas show at the New Vic Theatre sees a welcome return for Artistic Director Theresa Heskins’ 2014 adaptation of children’s fantasy tale The Borrowers.

And the critically acclaimed show isn’t the only ‘revival’ to be presented at the Newcastle-under-Lyme venue in 2026 - to mark its 40th anniversary, the theatre has been revisiting some of its most popular productions. What’s On caught up with Theresa to find out more...

“When I came here, I had a list of five plays that I thought we couldn’t do ‘in the round’. The Borrowers was one of them.”

Theresa Heskins, artistic director of the New Vic Theatre, has never been one to shy away from a challenge, as her work at the Staffordshire venue - one of the UK’s handful of permanent in-the-round theatres - emphatically confirms. Recent productions have featured trains, boats and an elephant (Around The World In 80 Days), tunnels in POW camps (Tom, Dick & Harry), acrobatic canines (The Company Of Wolves) and even swimmers with tails instead of legs (The Little Mermaid).

Theresa laughs when I mention the absurd levels of ambition that have become characteristic of her work.

“It’s so lovely to hear that thought - thank you! We do want to make sure audiences are being constantly surprised and delighted by what they find here, and part of that is the scale of ambition that we try to achieve.”

This year’s Christmas production, The Borrowers, shares that same aspiration, just as it did before, since it’s the revival of a production that was first staged in 2014. It’s being brought back as part of the theatre’s 40th anniversary celebrations, which have been taking place for most of the year, with a selection of audience favourites returning for an encore.

“To celebrate the 40 years, we thought we should do some of the shows that have made the biggest impact or been the most popular,” explains Theresa. “We asked people what shows they should be, and we’ve been doing them all year. We did Good Golly Miss Molly in the spring, and in summer we did Around The World In 80 Days, which was one of the most lovely experiences to bring back again.

“When we asked what Christmas show people would most like to see, we were really delighted as well as surprised that the answer was The Borrowers, which was a really memorable production.

“I’ve had a lovely time revisiting these gorgeous shows, but with new audiences as well - 80 per cent of the people who came to Around The World In 80 Days hadn’t been to see it before.”

It’s been 12 years since the original production of The Borrowers, so Theresa - who celebrates two decades at the venue next year - is expecting a similar split between original and first-time audience members.

“I think we’ll find, like we did with 80 Days, that people who saw and loved it are now bringing their children along, who were young before but are now teens and young adults. And of course there’ll be a whole new cohort of school children.”

Adapted from the children’s fantasy novel by Mary Norton, the show tells the story of the miniature Clock family, who secretly live beneath the floorboards of a regular human home, surviving by ‘borrowing’ items from the house above. The Clocks’ existence is threatened when a member of the family is spotted by one of the house’s habitants, leading to an exciting chase-fuelled story that mixes adventure and bravery with family and friendship. Throw in some lively music by James Atherton and it’s the perfect festive family show, following the theatre’s tradition of providing an alternative to the seasonal pantomime.

“When I came to the Vic, it was already established that the Christmas show would explore children’s literature,” says Theresa. “What was interesting for me is that I didn’t come from a family who did reading, so I was doing shows without ever having read [the books] as a kid.

“I’ve been so lucky to be able to catch up on all that. And to think about those stories, not from the lens of my own past and how they impacted me when I was a child, but what they mean for people here locally, and the young people who might be our audiences.

“So it’s been a real joy to discover all these stories and think about how to bring them to the stage.”
Since they’re children’s books, they largely live in the imagination - doesn’t that make them impossible to stage?

“Ha! Yeah, exactly - almost all of them! But one of the lovely things about being ‘in the round’ is that it invites the audience to use their imaginations. They’re very aware of being in the space, and they can see each other, and a kind of creative collaboration takes place.”

Theresa says audiences can expect a number of changes from the show’s original incarnation, including an all-new (and bigger) cast, expanded climbing scenes (“we’re bringing in an aerial circus specialist to help us to polish them up a bit”), more music and “clearer and crisper sound”, courtesy of a new sound system installed over the summer.

“It’s been a nice opportunity to brush it up and do something a little bit new with it,” she says, noting that the show’s fantastic props include a giant toothbrush, as well as a huge safety pin and enormous cheese grater.

“They’re taller than I am, but they actually work! On the other hand, we’ve got this beautiful model village of tiny little houses - you can look into the windows and see fully fitted kitchens and even a bath with bubble bath in.”

The theatre’s configuration means audiences will have a chance to do just that when they’re filing in and out of their seats. Theresa is hoping it adds to the magic, as well as reaffirming the quality of the work being produced by the venue, which continues to punch above its weight on the world stage. Its latest success saw a 2024 co-production of The Princess And The Pea being performed on Broadway, as well as at the Southbank Centre in London.

“We never thought a show like that would play a venue of that scale,” she says, with more than a hint of glee. “Having started here, it’s been so exciting to see it going further afield and meeting new audiences.

“I’m so proud of the work being made here by people who live locally, as well as for local audiences to know that it’s out there on the international stage, doing our area credit. The Potteries is a place that traditionally exported its culture to the rest of the world, and I’m really proud that we’re following in that tradition.”

Theresa’s positivity clearly extends to the upcoming production, which is proving so popular that its run has already been extended way beyond the traditional festive season.

“I think we’ve now got one of the longest-running Christmas shows in the country, and it’s just down to audience demand,” she says, acknowledging that focusing on families and festive values, rather than Santa Claus or presents, will hopefully work in its favour come mid-January.

“We have those values that celebrate Christmas - for example, families that have been parted coming back together, which is a strong theme in all of our lives at this time of year - but also a story that will tide us through into January, where we don’t have all that warmth and tradition. It can be quite a bleak month where people need a bit of cheering up, and I think we’ll manage to do that!”

The Borrowers shows at the New Vic Theatre, Newcastle-under-Lyme, from Friday 13 November to Saturday 23 January

By Steve Adams