Hello, and thanks for joining us for another Curated Culture.
There’s never any shortage of things competing for space in this newsletter, so once again we’ve done the rummaging on your behalf and picked out a selection of North East cultural happenings we reckon are worth getting in front of over the next couple of weeks.
As ever, we’ve also rounded up previous recommendations which are STILL SHOWING, while NOW BOOKING looks further ahead at things worth getting into the diary.
And this week we’re debuting our FESTIVE FORECAST, offering a few season specific ideas for anyone ready to start thinking about Christmas*.
Further down, this week’s subscriber prize draw offers the chance to catch one of Indonesia’s biggest alt-pop bands in the intimate surroundings of Gosforth Civic Theatre. We’ve got two pairs of tickets to see Elephant Kind on September 25.
Thanks, as ever, for your continued attention and support
Sam (Wonfor) and Dave (Whetstone)
Professionally preoccupied with North East Culture
*We’ve tipped into September, someone had to say it.
THEATRE: Othello
Where: Northern Stage, Newcastle
When: September 11 to 26
Bookings and info: northernstage.co.uk
Dwane Walcott takes on the challenging role of Othello in this new production of the Shakespeare play set in the early 1980s and against the backdrop of the Falklands War.
It’s actually a co-production by Northern Stage, HOME Manchester and Glasgow Citizens Theatre, in association with Royal & Derngate in Northampton.
Directed by award-winning Anthony Almeida, well known in opera and theatre circles, it takes a fresh look at the play, examining “the everyday negotiations that hold communities together until they quietly begin to tear apart”.
The setting, we are told, finds “a society in transition, where institutions still carry immense authority but the world around them is beginning to change”.
Says Almeida: “This Othello examines how behaviour, love and identity are shaped under public scrutiny and private pressure.
“It’s a story as much about intimacy as it is about insecurity – and how one begins to erode the other.”
Iago is to be played by Maanuv Thiara while Phoebe Smyth, a recent graduate of London Academy of Music & Dramatic Art, is cast as Desdemona, Othello’s maligned wife.
SPOKEN WORD: Rowan McCabe - Hard Knocks
Where: Queen’s Hall Arts, Hexham
When: September 8
Bookings and info: queenshall.co.uk
North East poet Rowan McCabe has spent the past decade taking poetry to some unusual places – from pizza takeaways and Wordsworth’s childhood home to strangers’ doorsteps.
Following a BBC Radio 4 series and the release of his new book, The Door-to-Door Poet, he returns to the stage with Hard Knocks.
Mixing comedy, spoken word and stories from his unconventional career, the show explores community and connection with plenty of detours along the way. Poet Ellen Moran is special guest.
Rowan will also be performing at this weekend’s Lindisfarne Festival in the Dingle Dell Tent and will be back in the region with Hard Knocks at The Word, South Shields (September 18); The Friarage, Yarm (Sept 20; The Straw Yard , Berwick (Sept 26); and at Durham Book Festival (Oct 10). Booking details here.
COMEDY: The Guilty Feminist
Where: Live Theatre, Newcastle
When: September 4
Bookings and info: live.org.uk
The Guilty Feminist brings its new Road to Gilead Project to the North East, combining comedy, conversation and a call to action. Since 2016, Deborah Frances-White’s podcast has amassed more than 200 million downloads with its candid take on feminism, its ambitions and contradictions.
The new live project takes its name from Gilead, the oppressive regime in Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, and explores resistance to the rise of the far right with comedians, activists and guests.
A companion Road to Gilead Open Space on September 5 invites audiences to continue the conversation and turn ideas into action.
LECTURE: The Anastasia File
Where: Lit & Phil, Newcastle
When: Monday, September 14, 6pm
Bookings and info: litandphil.org.uk
This is a scene setter for the play coming to Newcastle Theatre Royal (September 16 to 19) which harks back to one of the great atrocities – and mysteries – of the 20th Century.
In July 1918, after the Russian Revolution, Tsar Nicholas II and his family were brutally executed by the Bolsheviks in Ekaterinburg.
Two years later, a woman was pulled from a Berlin canal after a suicide attempt and placed in an institution.
Was she the Grand Duchess Anastasia, a miraculous survivor of the killings and heir to the family fortune?
Royce Ryton made the real-life mystery the subject of his 1978 play which comes to Newcastle with Jenny Seagrove playing the mysterious woman.
The production is directed by Roy Marsden whose late brother Michael Mould founded Bruvvers Theatre Company and bought (with Roy’s help) the Ouseburn building which now houses The Cluny and 36 Lime Street.
At the Lit & Phil, history teacher Michael Knott will look at events leading up to the bloody episode and subsequent mystery.
All who attend (admission £5) will get a complimentary ticket to see the Friday performance at the Theatre Royal.
EVENT: Heritage Open Days
Where: Venues and attractions all over the North East
When: September 11-20
Bookings and info: heritageopendays.org.uk
Heritage Open Days returns later this month, with historic buildings, hidden spaces and rarely seen corners of the North East opening their doors as part of England’s largest annual festival of history and culture.
Everything is free, with a huge programme ranging from guided walks, tours and talks to film screenings, bell ringing, breweries, churches, clock towers and opportunities to explore places not normally open to the public.
There are events across the region throughout the festival, so our advice is to head to the North East section of the Heritage Open Days website, settle in for a scroll and see what you can uncover.
SCREEN: S.O.U.L Fest
Where: Tyneside Cinema
When: September 5
Bookings and info: tynesidecinema.co.uk
Newcastle’s Tyneside Cinema hosts a one-day celebration of Black cinema and filmmaking as S.O.U.L. Fest (Screening Our Unseen Lives) comes to the region this weekend.
The programme combines local short films with a selection of official S.O.U.L Fest shorts, followed by a filmmaker Q&A hosted by journalist, author and broadcaster Ellen E. Jones.
Also screening is Black Is Beautiful – The Kwame Brathwaite Story, exploring the photographer behind some 500,000 images celebrating African American life and the influential “Black is Beautiful” movement. Director Yemi Bamiro will also be there for a post-film Q&A.
COMEDY: Seann Walsh - This Is Torture
Where: ARC, Stockton
When: September 12
Bookings and info: seannwalsh.com
Comedian Seann Walsh is back on the road with This Is Torture, his first new stand-up show since his sell-out 2023 tour.
The title comes from a phrase he apparently finds himself using rather a lot, which gives some indication of where his latest hour of comedy might be heading.
Expect Walsh’s familiar mix of high-energy exasperation and sharply observed frustrations as he finds plenty more about everyday life to get worked up about.
Seann will be back in the region at The Witham, Barnard Castle (Sept 25) and Queen’s Hall Arts, Hexham (Sept 26).
THEATRE: The Departure
Where: Alphabetti Theatre, Newcastle
When: September 11
Bookings and info: ticketsource.com
Audiences can get an early look at a new play in development when The Departure comes to Alphabetti Theatre as part of its Work in Progress programme.
Written by and starring Tom A. Wells (Waterloo Road, EastEnders), it brings together fast-talking chemist Lily and stoic northern fencer Ross, two strangers whose encounter in a London flat gradually exposes shared experiences of grief and abandonment.
Playing out in real time over 85 minutes, we’re told the two-hander moves between drama, farce and tenderness as its unlikely pair lower their defences. As a work-in-progress performance, audiences can also offer feedback to help shape its future.
MUSIC: King King
Where: The Glasshouse, Gateshead
When: Wednesday, September 9, 8pm
Bookings and info: theglasshouseicm.org
“Big Riffs. Big Smiles. Rock music to make you happy.”
That’s the billing for a blues rock band, formed in Glasgow in 2008 by Alan Nimmo (guitar, vocals) and Lindsay Coulson (bass), which prides itself on stoking up a convivial atmosphere.
Nimmo, who with Coulson is also known for his appearances with The Nimmo Brothers (founded in 1995 with brother Stevie, also now in King King), cuts a dash on stage in his trademark kilt.
The debut album, Take My Hand, was released in 2011 after the band had built up a following at blues festivals.
The King King sound owes much to the genre, even its name referencing a famous Los Angeles blues club.
Now with a clutch of live and studio albums to its name, King King has a dedicated fan base.
There have been umpteen gigs and tours, changes of line-up and obstacles to overcome but the current five-strong line-up stands by the original aim of sending audiences away happy.
Still a few tickets left, standing or sitting, to see the roof raised in Sage Two.
EVENT: 100 Years of Kielder Weekend Celebration
Where: Boggle Hole below Kielder Castle, Northumberland
When: September 5 and 6
Bookings and info: visitkielder.com
Kielder Forest marks its centenary with a packed weekend celebrating 100 years of forestry, wildlife and community. Events around Kielder Castle and Boggle Hole include running trails, family cycling and mountain bike rides, live music and a talk exploring the creation of the forest.
Sunday brings the annual Vintage and Classic Vehicle Show alongside working forestry displays, horse logging demonstrations, a dog show and an exhibition tracing Kielder’s history.
The celebrations bring together families, forestry workers and local communities to mark a century since the first experimental planting of 45 acres in 1926 – the beginning of the vast forest which underpins more than 400,000 visitors every year. Read more
EXHIBITION: Kitchen Sink Realism
Where: NGCA, Culture House Sunderland
When: September 12 to January 17
Booking & Info: culturehousesunderland.co.uk
What a brilliant exhibition to begin the Northern Gallery of Contemporary Art’s new era in its new home, which opens to the public on September 12.
The NGCA was previously at the National Glass Centre and before that above the City Library on Fawcett Street. Prior to that, it was on Stockton Road.
Culture House Sunderland, on Keel Square, is the new home of both library and gallery (and more besides) and it’s fitting it should open paying homage to Audrey Amiss, an artist who never enjoyed the appreciation her work merited.
“I was once in the tradition of social realism, also called the kitchen sink school of painting, but I am now avant garde and misunderstood,” she once said.
Born in Sunderland in 1933, she studied at Sunderland College of Art and won a scholarship to the Royal Academy School of Art in the 1950s, but was dogged by mental illness and didn’t stay the course.
She died in in 2013, leaving a trove of paintings and other artistic work that was donated to the Wellcome Collection in London.
MUSIC: Sunderland Year of Music - A Celebration
Where: The Fire Station
When: September 8, 6pm
Bookings and info: thefirestation.org.uk
Sunderland Music City is marking the end of its inaugural Year of Music with a free celebration bringing together the people who helped make it happen.
From June 2025 to June 2026, more than 500 events took place across the city, from major concerts and festivals to grassroots gigs, workshops, school projects and industry events.
This evening event offers a chance to look back at a year designed to celebrate Sunderland’s musical heritage while creating new opportunities for its artists, venues and communities.
🎉 FESTIVAL WATCH 🎉
Lindisfarne Festival, Beal Farm, Northumberland, September 3-5
Staithes Festival of Arts and Heritage, Tees Valley, various locations, September 11-13
Hexham Abbey Festival of Music and Arts, Hexham, Northumberland, September 23-26
Beyond the Moor, Gosforth Civic Theatre, Oct 10
Can’t see your festival here? Send us the details
STILL SHOWING
Festival: WRITE Festival 2026, The Word, National Centre for the Written Word and other South Tyneside venues, until Sept 26
Gathering: The Salon, The Light, Aykley Heads, Durham, Sept 3, 5-8pm
Storytelling: A Bit Crack present Chris Adriaanse telling The Castle of Truth, The Chillingham, Heaton, Sept 4
Audio: Music Lives Here podcast, Your ears, via wherever you get your podcasts
When: Weekly until Sept 25
Festival: Lindisfarne Festival, Beal Farm, Northumberland, Sept 3-6
Festival: Tynemouth Food Festival, Tynemouth Priory and Castle, Sept 5-6
Dance: The Car Man, Newcastle Theatre Royal, Sept 8-12
Talk: Discover the Dark Side of Northumberland, Queen’s Hall, Hexham, Sept 8, 6pm
Event: Ushaw Flower Festival, Ushaw Historic House, Chapels and Gardens, Sept 10-13
Exhibition: CHROMA: A Measure of Colour, Arts Centre Washington, until Sept 18
Screen: Poised, STV player, available now
Exhibition: Victory Over the Sun: Adventures with Light, The Light, Aykley Heads, Durham, until Jan 17, 2027
Art: Northern Summer Exhibition, Newcastle Arts Centre, Westgate Road, until Sept 12
Event: Redhills Sundays, Redhills Durham Miners’ Hall, Sundays 11am-2pm
Exhibition: Things That Go!, Discovery Museum, Newcastle, until Feb 29, 2027
Exhibition: MOXIE: Generation Alpha Curates the Middlesbrough Collection, MIMA, Middlesbrough, until Mar 28, 2027. READ MORE
Music: The Ukelele Orchestra of Great Britain, Tyne Theatre & Opera House, Sept 4, 8pm
Music: Dave Stewart, The Fire Station, Sunderland, Sept 14 and 15
Exhibition: Discovering Dark Skies, Queen’s Hall Arts Centre, Hexham, until Sept 19
Screen: Ashington AFC: Saving Our Club, available to stream on BBC iPlayer
Event: Kynren – An Epic Tale of England, Bishop Auckland, County Durham, until Sept 12
Exhibition: Norman Cornish – A Life in Sketchbooks, Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle, until Jan 3. Read our full report
Exhibition: Mourning Tea Tyne & Lost Frequencies, Globe Gallery, North Shields, ongoing
Exhibition: Joan Eardley, Granary Gallery, Berwick-upon-Tweed, until Oct 11
Screen: The Fortune, Channel 5, available now
Screen: Smoggie Queens, BBC Three and BBC iPlayer, available now
Screen: This Is Not A Murder Mystery, UTV and streaming on Channel Four, available now.
Exhibition: Foundation Press – Starting Lines, BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, until Aug 30.
Radio: Si King on Desert Island Discs, BBC Sounds/iPlayer
Exhibition: Vivienne Westwood: Rebel – Storyteller – Visionary, The Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle, until Sept 6
Exhibition: Following the Eagle, Segedunum Roman Fort, Wallsend, until Oct 3
Exhibition: Picture This: Someone Like Me, Great North Museum: Hancock, until Jan 2027
Exhibition: Portrait Award 2025, Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle, until Sept 5
Exhibition: Enigmas, RePUBlic Gallery, Blyth, ongoing
Radio: Tom and Lauren Are Going OOT!, BBC Sounds
Exhibition: Out of the Darkness, Mining Art Gallery, Bishop Auckland, until December
NOW BOOKING
Event: Kim McGuinness in Conversation with Si King, The Fire Station, Sunderland, Sept 23
Theatre: All At Sea, Live Theatre, Newcastle, Sept 24-Oct 10
Comedy: Maisie Adam - Whatsherface, Tyne Theatre and Opera House (Sept 27); Middlesbrough Town Hall (Oct 8);
Music: Steve Luck and Simeon Walker, 36 Lime Street, Ouseburn, Oct 4
Music: Voices of Virtue Gospel Choir, Sage Two, Oct 17
Event: Alice Cooper - Devil on My Shoulder Book Tour, Stockton Globe, Oct 17
Ballet: Cinderella, Northern Ballet, Newcastle Theatre Royal, Oct 28-31
Music: Paul Heaton, Utilita Arena Newcastle, Oct 29
Music: Bellowhead - Burlesque 20th Anniversary Tour, Sage One, The Glasshouse, Gateshead, Nov 11
Theatre: My Name is Rachel Corrie, Live Theatre, Newcastle, Nov 20-21
Comedy: Mark Simmons - Jest to Impress, The Roxy, Consett (Nov 9); Alnwick Playhouse, (Nov 10); Darlington Hippodrome (Nov 20); The Witham, Barnard Castle (Nov 21); and The Stand Newcastle (Nov 24)
2027
Theatre: Mean Girls, Newcastle Theatre Royal, Jan 18-20
Theatre: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Sunderland Empire (Feb 2-6); Darlington Hippodrome, May 25-29
Music: The Felice Brothers, The Fire Station, Sunderland, Feb 12
Music: Kim WIlde - The Singles Tour, Sage One, The Glasshouse, Mar 14
Event: Janet Street-Porter Is Still Off The Leash At 80!, Customs House, South Shields, Apr 11
🎄 FESTIVE FORECAST 🎄
Music: Christmas Massaoke, Sage One, The Glasshouse, Dec 3
Music: The Unthanks In Winter, Redhills Durham (Dec 4); Hexham Abbey (Dec 5)
Family Comedy: Snow White vs Cinderella, The Stand Newcastle, Dec 5, 6, 12, 13, 19, 20, 21, 23, 28, 29, 30
Family Theatre: A Christmas Carol, Queen’s Hall Arts, Hexham, Dec 5-Jan 2
Comedy: The Suggestibles - Impro Pantso, The Stand Newcastle (Dec 10); Queen’s Hall Arts (Dec 12); Live Theatre (Dec 17-18); and The Cumberland Arms, Dec 19
Music: Christmas in Ireland, Stockton Globe, Dec 12
Music: The Futureheads Christmas Shows, The Fire Station, Sunderland, Dec 18 and 19
Family Theatre: Where Do All The Kittiwakes Go At Christmas, Live Theatre, Dec 19-31
Panto: Rapunzel, Gala Theatre Durham, Nov 19-Dec 31
Panto: Jack and the Beanstalk, Newcastle Theatre Royal, Nov 24-Jan 17. Read more
Panto: The Further Adventures of Peter Pan - The Return of Captain Hook, Sunderland Empire, Dec 11- Jan 3
COMPETITION TIME
Welcome to our latest newsletter prize draw - offering our subscribers an exclusive chance to win tickets to see or do something great.
This week, we’ve got two pairs of tickets to see one of Indonesia’s biggest alt-pop bands, Elephant Kind in the intimate surroundings of Gosforth Civic Theatre on September 25.
Formed by frontman Bam Mastro more than a decade ago, the award-winning three-piece built a major following in Indonesia before relocating to London in 2022 with ambitions to take their genre-fluid sound to a wider international audience.
Recent years have brought appearances at YNot, Tramlines and Wilderness, a sold-out UK tour and sessions for BBC Radio 6 Music, BBC Introducing and Radio X.
Their genre-hopping sound mixes indie, pop and electronic influences and they arrive in Newcastle following the 2026 release of new album More Time, recorded in London, mixed in Los Angeles and finalised in Jakarta.
Support comes from North East singer-songwriter and pianist Robyn Errico, whose atmospheric music has earned BBC 6 Music support, a BBC Introducing Track of the Year nod and appearances at Kendal Calling, Focus Wales and The Glasshouse.
HOW TO ENTER:
To be in with a chance of winning, simply email MePlease@culturednortheast.co.uk using the subject line: ‘GOOD TIMES WITH ELEPHANT KIND’ by 5pm on Sunday, September , August 29.
The winner, who will be selected at random, will be notified within 48 hours of the entry deadline.
Terms and conditions: Only subscribers to the Cultured. North East newsletter are eligible to enter the Newsletter Prize Draw competition. Prizes are as stated - subject to availability - and non-transferable. No cash alternatives will be offered. You must be over 18 years of age to enter. The Editor’s decision is final.