Stage career
At the end of his three year commission, Newark returned to England in 1958. He subsequently began studying at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, and graduated in 1960.
Newark was one of several members of the RADA class of 1960 who participated in a 10-week season of performances in Bangor, Northern Ireland, organised by the Council for the Encouragement of Music and the Arts (CEMA) and Bangor Borough Council, starting in July 1960. The group presented performances of Mr. Kettle and Mrs. Moon, Agatha Christie's The Hollow, and Ben Travers's Rookery Nook.
In early 1961, Newark joined the English Stage Company, appearing in several productions at the Royal Court Theatre, which the company had purchased in 1956. In February, he played Jasperino in the Jacobean tragedy The Changeling; the first staging of the play since the 17th century. Following this, in April, Newark was among the cast for an English translated production of Jean-Paul Satre’s The Condemned of Altona, retitled simply to Altona, at the Royal Court, preceded by a short tour to cities like Liverpool and Newcastle.
From the summer of 1961 until early 1962, Newark was a member of the resident company of the Belgrade Theatre, Coventry, first appearing in a two week run of J. B. Priestley's When We Are Married, as well as productions of Harold Pinter's The Caretaker, and A. A. Milne's Toad of Toad Hall. Among Newark's contemporaries at this time were Bridget Turner, Mark Eden, and Ian McKellen.
In the 1970s, Newark became involved with the Royal National Theatre. While there he was part of the company that opened its current South Bank home and was a cornerstone of the residential company that worked in the smaller Cottesloe Theatre under Bill Bryden's direction. His most important roles there were Bottom in A Midsummer Night's Dream and the world premiere of David Mamet's Glengarry Glen Ross where he played Shelley Levene (a role later played on screen by Jack Lemmon). At the National he also appeared as Malcolm in Alan Ayckbourn's Bedroom Farce, which transferred to the West End and then Broadway. He also created the role of Roote in Harold Pinter's play The Hothouse which premiered in 1980 in a production directed by the playwright.
