For a century, the Newcastle Ocean Baths have been an egalitarian stage on which the city’s people have gathered, played and shared life’s moments.

A handful of the countless stories centred on the baths are about to take new shape in Meet Me at the Baths, a site-specific work of theatre from Newcastle’s Whale Chorus Theatre Company, directed by Janie Gibson and written by Ang Collins.

The Baths, its regular swimmers and its shifting daily rhythms will supply stage, subject and a cast of supporting players.

Performers Stephanie Rochet, Barney Donaghy, Jim Lawson and Katia Molino (foreground): Meet Me at the Baths. Photo © Lee Illfield 

For Gibson, the process has been about exploring the tideline between real life and performance.

“We’re not closing the space off to the public for the shows because it’s such an important community space,” she explains. “So there will be locals doing their laps and whatever while the actors, who are miked up, are stealthily performing. It’s almost like the audience is eavesdropping.”

Discovering what ‘performance’ means in that environment has been one of the more interesting challenges in rehearsals, Gibson says. “We found that if the actors...