Viv Hardwick talks to Maddy Kerr of Heartbreak Productions who will be playing an outdoor venue near you during the summer.

THE Heartbreak has lasted 18 years for married couple Peter Mimmack and Maddy Kerr in terms of becoming one of the UK’s most successful outdoor theatre touring companies with no fewer than 18 summer dates in the North-East and North Yorkshire.

“We’re certainly in the top two or three in terms of distance covered and dates booked. It is one hell of a commitment and ‘team player and communication’ lie at the heart of everything we do.

“We do spend an awful lot of time getting the right people,” says mother-of-two and executive director Kerr, who is on the road with productions of The Wind In The Willows, As You Like It and Emma.

The company opened in the region with a “happy to avoid the rain” As You Like It at Brancepath Castle, Durham, last Sunday and is ready for Middlesbrough, Newcastle, Northallerton, Richmond’s Kiplin Hall and Fountains Abbey.

And it all started in Newcastle, reveals Kerr, when her artistic director husband got the acting bug when he was supposed to be studying to be a surveyor at the city’s university.

“He lived in Newcastle when he was little, for about four or five years, because his dad was a Methodist minister, and he returned to do a surveying degree. He did lots of acting and got a proper job for a few months and then thought ‘I don’t really want to do this’ and went to drama school.”

The pair met down in London and formed Heartbreak, which is based in Leamington Spa, in 1991. “We were well qualified in terms of acting passion, but the business acumen you learn on the way,” she jokes and feels that Mimmack’s good clear Northern ethics of “don’t spend more than you earn” has ensured the company’s survival.

On the touring life, Kerr explains that venues like Brancepath have become old friends after ten years of visits while newer conquests are the Centre Square, Middlesbrough and the Dalton Park shopping centre.

“The show is only as good as the team being delivered in the van. It’s in our interests to see that the five people in The Wind In The Willows are the five best people for that part.

That takes a huge amount of investment and energy. Sometimes we get it wrong and that makes the difference between the summer going with a zing and a twist or a very heavy heart,” says Kerr, who will be starting next month to set up scores of bookings for the 2010 season.

“That usually takes me through to the end of November. It can be a physical nightmare and anyone looking at it could say ‘doesn’t she know that Norfolk is nowhere near Cornwall?’, but every venue works differently,” she explains.

The best and worst of touring?

“The best is undoubtedly performing in the dry to a receptive audience, particularly when someone comes up at the end of a Shakespeare and say ‘I always hated Shakespeare at school, but that made me realise how great he is’.

The worst is probably not having to perform in stormy conditions but that persistent dark grey rain which can get quite debilitating.

“You do get to a point where you can’t get any wetter, but when you’re trying to comedy like As You Like It or Much Ado it can be almost impossible when it’s chucking it down with rain,” she says. Kerr reveals that any weather references are then delivered with heavy irony on such occasions to lift the spirits of both cast and audience.

“The get-out of putting everything in the van, all the costumes being soaking wet and going mouldy means that one of questions to potential cast is ‘do you really not mind performing in the rain?’,” she adds having guided Heartbreak through several of the UK’s recent awful summers.

“We had flash flooding in 2007 and three performances were cancelled because we physically couldn’t get there. Last year it was rain every day. It wasn’t severe rain, but it did mean that the audience wasn’t in the ‘let’s go out and have a good time’ mode.

“There was jaded cynical feeling at the end of last summer and some venues weren’t prepared to take that risk again this year,” she says.

“Each year my husband and I put our mortage on the line for this and last year we just about broke even.

In any other business if you were just breaking even about 18 years they’d give it up and do something else. Money is always hand-to-mouth and we rely totally on the goodwill of ticket-buyers.”

The name Heartbreak comes from the fact that the company is in the heart of the country and that the best drama comes out of conflict, which often causes heartbreak.

However, the news is more heartwarming for the couple’s 16-year-old daughter, Leila, who is currently shooting a new ITV series in Leeds called Married, Single, Other.

“She’s earning more money than either of us have had in our lives,”

she jokes.

TOURS AND DATES

The Wind In The Willows: July 8-9, mima gardens, Centre Square, Middlesbrough, 6.30pm, 01642-815181 or 729729.

August 4,5,6 Jesmond Dene, Newcastle, 6.30pm, 0191-2305151. August 19, Mount Grace Priory, Northallerton, 7pm, 01609-883494. August 20, Dalton Park, 3pm, 0191-526-6157 As You Like It: July 8, 9, 10, Jesmond Dene, 7.30pm, 0191-230-5151. July 15, Mount Grace Priory, Northallerton, 7.30pm, 01609-883494 Emma: August 5, Mount Grace Priory, 7.30pm, 01609-883494. August 7, 8, 9, 7.30pm then Sat Mat 3pm and Sun at 6.30pm, 0191-230-5151.

August 13, Kiplin Hall, Richmond.

7.30pm, 01748-818178. August 29, Fountains Abbey, 7pm, 01670-773939