Cultured. On Sunday 29.03.26
Our weekend edition for longer reads and cultural recommendations
This week’s Cultured. On Sunday begins via a conversation with Teesside-born theatre maker Rachel Stockdale, whose latest project sets out to explore and spotlight the lived experiences of mothers.
Elsewhere, David Whetstone offers a tempting amuse bouche ahead of ClassicFest’s return in May, alongside a look at what’s in store for the new classical season at The Glasshouse.
Tony Henderson previews an exhibition where art and environmental concerns meet, while Forum Books tip a title they’re already calling a contender for book of the year.
Photographer Mark Pinder opens his archive to share 10 images capturing life through his lens, and Boxing Clever turns its attention to a franchise based on a big book series.
And to round things off, this week’s Sunday Plate recipe comes from Michelin-starred Northumberland restaurant Pine.
Tuck in!
Motherhood with no filter
Before a single line is written, before a stage is set or a character imagined, Rachel Stockdale’s latest project is starting with a lot of listening.
The Stockton-born, award-winning theatre-maker is about to begin work on Mother?, a new project that will be shaped not by a script, but by the people it seeks to represent.
Over the coming weeks, she is inviting mothers, parents and primary caregivers into workshops at ARC Stockton - designed to be a safe space where they will be free to talk honestly about their experiences and the realities of being a parent.
“I’m going to walk into the room with a blank page with the first group of participants and see what happens,” she says simply.
It’s a bold approach, even for an artist known for turning lived experience into compelling theatre. But for Rachel, it’s the only way this project can work. Because Mother? isn’t about presenting a version of parenthood, it’s about discovering it.
Rachel is in her mid-thirties, married, and currently child-free. It’s a position that has placed her, as she puts it, in a unique role among friends and family.
A mixed bag as Glasshouse unveils 'ambitious' classical season
The Glasshouse has taken the wraps off its 2026-27 classical music season, hailing it as the most ambitious yet - and beginning with a home-produced Mozart opera to emphasise the point.
The September 19 concert staging of Cosi fan tutte, with a cast including sopranos Christina Gansch and Alexandra Oomens, tenor Jonas Hacker and baritone Cody Quattlebaum, is to be followed in successive seasons by The Marriage of Figaro and Don Giovanni.
This ‘exploration’ of the so-called Mozart/Da Ponte operas (after librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte) will be led by Dinis Sousa, music director of Royal Northern Sinfonia (RNS), and also feature the orchestra and RNS Chorus.
Book a seat at the table for the tasty return of ClassicsFest
Raise your goblet for ClassicsFest which is returning in May with the focus this year on food, wine and hospitality in Ancient Greece and Rome.
Fans and curious first-timers are invited to the table to sample an enticing menu of talks, discussions, theatrical performances and food and wine tastings.
Designed to blow the dust off classic texts, the festival was piloted in 2024 with its theme of women and love inspired by the heroines – often sorely tested and wronged by men – described in Ovid’s Heroides.
Popular demand saw its return last year with a timely look at politics inspired by Cicero, the Roman statesman and orator.
Now the festival, hosted once again by the Lit & Phil along with Newcastle University’s School of History, Classics and Archaeology, introduces another toga-wearing character from long ago.
Roman gourmet Apicius, a wealthy merchant with a passion for fine food and hospitality, was the spark for this year’s festival, and in particular the creative writing challenge that will see the premiere of winner Abby Walker’s first stage play.
See her comedy Great Granda Apicius, directed by artistic director Ed Cole, at Alphabetti Theatre on May 15 or 16 (7.30pm).
Cinzia Hardy’s aim in founding ClassicsFest was to make the (still startlingly relevant) classical world accessible to modern audiences.
Exhibition tackles tide of plastic waste
Morning swimmers enjoy the bracing experience of taking a dip off North East beaches.
But all is not as it seems as swimmer Jackie Sewell discovered.
Jackie runs the plastic-free and sustainable living outlet Buy the Kilo at Tynemouth Station and swims from Cullercoats Bay.
She gathered a sample of sand from her wetsuit and had it microscopically examined by Newcastle University.
“This showed grains of plastic in among the sand, which obviously has a very harmful impact on sea life,” said Jackie.
Now Jackie and artist friend Ali Elly have organised an exhibition on the theme of plastic pollution and coming up with solutions to the widespread environmental problem, including cutting use of the material and recycling.
No Time for Waste at the Old Low Light heritage centre on North Shields Fish Quay runs from April 3-18.
Helen Stanton is the owner of FORUM Books, Corbridge the Bound Whitley Bay and The Accidental Bookshop in Alnwick. This week’s recommendation is already vying for book of the year in her, well, book.
Kenan Orhan’s The Renovation is simply superb.
Dilara, a Turkish woman living in exile with her husband and father in Italy finds her father is disappearing. His memories are collapsing, dementia stealing a little more of him each day.
She has persuaded him to move in with her, hiring builders to adapt her apartment to his new needs, but when the renovation is complete she discovers, instead of a new en-suite bathroom, behind the builder’s tarp … is a Turkish prison cell … and a guard walks past the door.
Dazzling, Kafkaesque, evocative … words fail with this one it’s genuinely brilliant, and a new classic. And we have a limited number of signed copies too.
We’ve been asking asking North East-based photographers to open up their archives and select two handfuls of images which encapsulate life as they’ve captured it
Mark Pinder was a teenager when the possibilities offered by photography started coming into focus.
“I’ve always been quite a curious person with many interests ranging from science, the arts, social and current affairs, politics etc,” he says.
“I wasn’t particularly good at painting or drawing but a friend of my parents had an SLR camera which I played with and was fascinated with the mechanics of.
“I also knew someone who was working as a documentary photographer and photojournalist in the early 80’s and I realised that this was a medium which ticked all of the boxes for the things that interested me.”
From the chemical and mechanical process of producing photographs to organising the composition of a captured image, Mark’s interest was piqued.
“It also pressed the right buttons (excuse the pun) regarding my curiosity about the world,” he says. “I realised that it was a way to explore and document things which would normally be outside the scope of normal experience so decided that journalistic and documentary photography was the career path I wanted to explore.”
Every week, Michael Telfer – aka Mike TV – recommends a box set to crack open. This week’s he’s going all political, but with a scandi twist.
Jack Reacher is a retired Military Police officer, formerly of the US Army. He is the lead character in a fantastically successful series of books written by British author Lee Child, which have sold over 100 million copies worldwide.
There are 30 Reacher novels in all, and I’ve currently read 29 and a half of them.
Some are brilliant, some are ok, some are fairly bad and one was so wretched that I couldn’t bring myself to finish it, despite being a faithful and largely forgiving fan of the series.
Two film adaptations were released in 2012 and 2014, controversially starring Tom Cruise in the lead role. I say controversially because Tom Cruise is small enough to avoid paying VAT on his clothes and Jack Reacher is massive.
Unfortunately for Tom, Reacher’s massiveness is quite a fundamental part of the character.
Lee Child said at the time that “Reacher’s size in the books is a metaphor for an unstoppable force, which Cruise portrays in his own way.” Almost nobody was convinced.
As a result the films were largely disliked or boycotted altogether by the fans of the books, and after two attempts Paramount cut their losses.
So when Amazon announced they were making a TV adaptation of the books in 2019 there was a sense of nervous excitement. Who would they cast as the lead role? Could they pull it off?
Each week, the Sunday Plate invites chefs from across the North East to share a recipe, offering a taste of the region’s professional kitchens to try at home.
Set within Vallum Farm in East Wallhouses, Northumberland, Pine is the first restaurant from husband-and-wife team Cal and Sian Byerley. Since opening, it has earned both a Michelin Star and a Michelin Green Star for sustainability, alongside recognition from The 360° Eat Guide as one of the UK’s more environmentally focused dining destinations.
The restaurant’s approach is closely tied to its surroundings, drawing on the mix of farmland, woodland and coastline that characterises the Northumberland landscape. Much of what appears on the menu reflects this setting, with produce grown in an on-site kitchen garden and ingredients often foraged locally.
Meat, fish and dairy are sourced from producers within a relatively tight radius, reflecting an emphasis on regional supply chains and seasonality. That connection to place - and to the people producing the food - sits at the heart of Pine’s identity, shaping both its menu and its broader ethos.
Cal has shared his recipe for Pine Sourdough which sounds like something lovely to make of a Sunday afternoon.
Pine Sourdough
Ingredients:
• 4400g water (20°C)
• 1800g starter
• 4000g Canadian flour
• 2000g Einkorn flour
• 250g Maldon salt
Method:
Autolyse
1. Add water, Canadian flour, and Einkorn flour to the mixer.
2. Mix on slow speed for 2–3 minutes, just until combined.
3. Leave to rest for 30–45 minutes.
(Do not add the starter or salt yet.)
Mixing
1. Add the starter and Maldon salt to the autolysed dough.
2. Mix on slow speed for 8 minutes.
3. Increase to medium speed for 4 minutes.
Dough Strengthening
1. Rest the dough for 45 minutes.
2. Mix on medium speed for 10 seconds.
3. Rest 45 minutes.
4. Mix on medium speed for 10 seconds.
5. Rest 45 minutes.
6. Mix on medium speed for 10 seconds.
Bulk Fermentation
1. Transfer the dough to a tub.
2. Leave at room temperature for 2–4 hours.
Cold Fermentation
1. Place the dough in the fridge for 24 hours.
Folding & Shaping
1. Remove dough from the fridge and turn it onto a lightly floured work surface.
2. Weigh into 1kg portions.
Folding (S-folds)
3. For each portion, gently stretch the dough into a rough rectangle.
4. Fold the top third down toward the centre.
5. Fold the bottom third up over the first fold (like folding a letter).
6. Rotate the dough 90° and repeat the fold.
7. Repeat until you have completed 8 S-folds, building structure and tension in the dough.
Shaping
8. Turn the dough seam-side down.
9. Using your hands or a bench scraper, drag the dough gently across the bench to tighten the outer surface.
10. Shape into a tight round or oval, depending on the loaf style.
11. Place seam-side up into bannetons well dusted with rice flour.
Final Proof
Leave shaped loaves in a warm room for 3–4 hours, until well risen and slightly springy to the touch.
Baking
1. Preheat oven to 250°C with baking stone or deck fully heated.
2. Turn loaves out of the bannetons onto a floured peel or tray.
3. Score the top of the loaf with a sharp blade.
4. Load into the oven and introduce steam.
5. Bake at 250°C for 15 minutes.
6. Reduce the temperature to 220°C and bake for a further 25–30 minutes, until the crust is deep golden brown.
7. Remove from the oven and cool completely on racks before slicing.