At first glance, the link between a classic Dutch play about outdated shipping laws in a small village at the turn of the century and a North Yorkshire fishing town is none too apparent. The sepia picture, depicting a young boy sitting on a rock in the sea playing with a toy boat, on the poster for a current production at the Royal National Theatre in London, provides a clue.

The image will be well known to those familiar with the work of Frank Meadow Sutcliffe, whose photographs of 19th Century Whitby made his name.

It certainly struck a chord with Newcastle-born writer Lee Hall, whose Billy Elliot screenplay won him an Oscar nomination. And it was the key to making Dutch play The Good Hope relevant to British theatre audiences.

The original, centred around a tragedy after a fishing boat is allowed to put to sea in an unfit state, touched a nerve in Holland. Nine years later, a government act outlawed the practices highlighted in the play.

Hall was enlisted to write a British version by director Bill Bryden who staged the play in Holland a decade ago.

"He always thought he should do a British version, but wanted to find a world for the play that resonated with people's understanding of fishing and the important traditions here," explains Hall.

"We both knew the pictures of Sutcliffe and Whitby seemed to be a fantastic place, because it's a real working town and has a specific culture. You feel the sea and fishing there."

As he began working on a British version, real life events convinced him of the story's relevance. Economic necessity being put before people's lives seemed as relevant today as it did when Herman Heijermans wrote the original.

'The rail industry seems to be almost a metaphor for that - how do you serve the public and the interests of finance?," he says. "So it seemed a very fresh and interesting subject. That made it seem very immediate. My job was not to try and change it, but to make the world alive and feel real."

The production tours to Newcastle Theatre Royal this month with Frances De La Tour as the mother, who fears for the lives of her fishermen sons, and Tom Georgeson as the shipowner who fails to avert the tragedy.

Hall sets the play in Whitby in 1900, adding traditional folk music and dance for a celebratory feel. He's opened out the action, confined to one room in the original, to show the life of the town in the streets and waterside. Set and costumes are heavily influenced by Sutcliffe's pictures. The production even opens with a photographer getting fishermen to pose for the camera, presumably a tribute to the man himself.

"A lot of the original play was very agit-prop, trying to change the shipping laws of the time. It's very black and white. We wanted to make it more complicated, more interesting and provocative," says Hall.

"It's an emotional play, about the women and what they have to deal with. All these themes are perennial. There's the great central performance of Kitty who carries the weight of the whole world on her shoulders."

Another tragedy occurred while the cast were rehearsing - the Twin Towers terrorists' attacks on September 11. "We were shocked. Because the play is about dealing with tragedy in a communal sense of grief, it had a deep effect on the company. The play deals with tragedy but has elements of consolation and, in some ways, emotional sharing helps the process," he says. The play has been performed in this country before. Ellen Terry starred in a 1902 production. Bill Owen was in a Unity Theatre staging 50 years ago. They were, says the writer, very old-fashioned and unworkable today.

'This is a very important work that's not been exposed here before," he says. "It was a worthwhile task, particularly because we found a Northern hook. This is a play about Northern people so, hopefully, it has a bit of humour.

"Bill Bryden is Glaswegian and we had an affinity with each other. It was important the play maintained its heart and roots. It's about a small town and very local things."

As well as original work, Hall has worked on a number of adaptations for the stage. "It's quite different from writing an original. In a new play you are doing a lot for yourself. For an adaptation, it's to make it happen for the actors, director and audience. You have a duty to service another writer respectfully," he says. "I would only adapt a play that I really liked and thought was an important piece of work, because you spend as much time on adapting as you do on a new play."

One attraction was having a strong female character, Kitty. He finds it difficult to write to order but, after doing so much work with male characters, he wanted to balance it out. It was also unusual in a classical play of 100 years ago to find such a leading role written for an actress.

The success of Billy Elliot on both sides of the Atlantic made Hall much in demand as a writer. Some odd offers followed, including what he considered a very bizarre one to write a new Hannibal Lecter film. Such offers were rejected. "I just wanted to do my own work," he says.

He moves easily between stage, film and radio, while feeling there's something very immediate about theatre. "You can see a play produced. With a film it seems to take five years and you really lose track of it," he says.

Two past projects fell into other hands. He wrote part of a series for BBC Television, only to see it given to someone else to write because his other commitments prevented him. Then his first radio play, I Love You Jimmy Spud, became a film called Gabriel And Me with Billy Connolly. He had nothing to do with the movie, which flopped at the box office, although doesn't seem bitter about losing control. "The important thing is to keep your eye on the next thing and make it the best thing," he says.

Initially, Hall was "quite relaxed" about being put in the spotlight with Billy Elliot. Then the expectations for his future work sank in.

"It's something that's a lot bigger than I had realised," he admits. "I suppose, because my ambitions are quite modest, it's quite surprising to have something that played in America and in different countries. It doesn't make it any easier to write the next one."

* The Good Hope is at Newcastle Theatre Royal from February 26 to March 2. Tickets 0191-232 2061.