Brian Beacom

GLASGOW was once a major shipbuilding city, a town which taught men trades and survival skills, including a sense of humour.

But then by the seventies, shipbuilding had all but sank, and with this came trauma, displacement and loss of community.

The same impact was felt on Tyneside, which prompted rock star Sting to write a musical.

The Last Ship, playing at the Theatre Royal next week, tells of Gideon, a seaman who returns to the shipyard town of Wallsend after 17 years.

He discovers the gates are being closed for good. And with them a sense of hope.

Actor Joe McGann stars in the production as mid-management yard worker Jackie White. Growing up in inner city Liverpool Joe understands implicitly the importance of community.

“The play features a shipbuilding town but it could be about anywhere that’s lost an industry,” he says.

“It’s about this pre-Thatcher notion that we were all in it together. I miss that time before we all became cynical. I miss that feeling.”

Shipbuilding gave a sense of purpose. “Yes, as did the likes of mining. And I’m the product of it. My dad worked shifts all of my growing up period, as did the men around him.

“There wasn’t a lot of money around but it was a time when working class people could better themselves, and education was king.

“My dad and his generation learned all the time. And I’m so lucky to have come from a working class that was so well read, who were articulate and dignified.”

The actor, who is 60 next month adds; “I remember going to speaking tours as a teenager and seeing the likes of Michael Foot, Tony Benn or Jimmy Reid.

“And I learned that community wasn’t just about leaving your door open or doing the messages or the washing for your neighbours, it was about a collective sense of betterment.”

The McGann brothers were fortunate in that they weren’t locked into the world of heavy industry.

Thanks to the enlightenment the hard-working generation before had created, the Everyman Theatre was on their doorstep.

It represented a doorway to possibility for writers such as Wily Russell and Alan Bleasdale, actors such as George Costigan, Jonathan Pryce, Julie Walters and the McGann brothers.

“We were so fortunate with our world,” says the actor who now lives in Wales on sixty acres of land he bought with a friend Fiona where they’ve set up a co-housing project.

“We were inner city kids but there were lots of opportunities and adults around to look out for you.

“I was in an international choir, you could go places with the Scouts, we played in football teams, there was karate classes.

“I remember moving to London in the Seventies and realising that people my age were more affluent - but lead so much more insular lives.”

Joe McGann was the first of the brothers to sign up for the Everyman Theatre but went on to pursue a career in bands. His brothers followed in his acting footsteps however and the four appeared together in Yakety Yak, a 1983 musical based around the classic pop songs of Leiber and Stoller.

Joe has since gone on to have an illustrious acting career, in theatre such as Guys and Dolls, Oliver! Fiddler On The Roof and Calendar Girls.

He starred in TV sitcom The Upper Hand for six years from 1990.

Now, he’s immersed in The Last Ship, the Tony Award winner with a collection of great songs by Sting and a powerful storyline.

But you can’t have a play simply about despair, about loss, can you? An audience needs to leave on an upbeat.

“Your right,” he says, smiling. “My brother Stephen came to see the show, and he said it really reminds of days before Thatcher.”

“But he added there’s a real message of hope in there. He pointed out that every now and then society reforms itself and coughs up the poison, as it did when we got rid of Thatcher.”

The Last Ship encourages audiences to cough. Hard.

“Once the audience recognise in themselves the dignity of the people on the stage it lights them up.

“There’s a great speech at the end which is almost a call to arms. And what it says is remember the politicians are there to serve you, not the other way around.”

The musical is so powerful, so evocative, Joe has had to factor in the impact of the audience.

“When we appeared in Newcastle, there were older fellas in the audience who had worked in the yards. And I had to be careful not to look at them during the performance because I’d see them ‘greetin.

“It was so moving. But knew if I saw them cry I wouldn’t be able to sing the final song.”

What’s clear is the oldest McGann brother still loves acting

“I love it,” he says in serious voice. “I sometimes look back to the times when as a teenager I thought of becoming an actor.

“There were a few reasons why it would suit me; I have a butterfly mind, I flit from one thing to another.

“And I also knew I wouldn’t have to work all the time. On top of that, I knew it would be an education and I realised it was a team game, it was about working with other people.

“You know, all of this still holds true. I look back at the teenage lad I was and I realise he got most of it right.”

• The Last Ship, The Theatre Royal, until Saturday.