Hello and welcome to this week’s Curated Culture, with another handpicked selection of excellent reasons to leave the house.
As usual, our featured listings concentrate on the next couple of weeks, with STILL SHOWING highlighting previous recommendations which are still available to enjoy; NOW BOOKING keeping an eye on what’s coming down the track and FESTIVE FORECAST keeping tabs on Christmas.
This week’s prize draw comes with a side portion of urgency. We’ve got a pair of tickets to see Catherine Bohart’s new show, Borrowing Trouble, at The Stand Newcastle this Thursday – so don’t hang around if you want to be in with a chance. Entry details are at the end.
Thanks, as ever, for your attention and support.
Sam (Wonfor) and Dave (Whetstone)
Professionally preoccupied with North East Culture
THEATRE: Our Friends in the North
Where: Newcastle Theatre Royal
When: October 15-24
Bookings and info: theatreroyal.co.uk
Thirty years after Our Friends in the North became a landmark BBC drama, the story is returning to Newcastle in a new stage adaptation.
Original writer Peter Flannery and Live Theatre’s Jack McNamara revisit the lives of Tosker (Jack Robertson) , Geordie (Scott Turnbull), Nicky (Ryan Nolan) and Mary (Sam Neale), four friends whose relationships and ambitions are tested against the political and social upheaval of the Thatcher years.
Rather than retelling the entire television series, the production focuses on this pivotal chapter of the decades-spanning story.
A collaboration between Live, Eastlake Productions and Newcastle Theatre Royal, the production offers a timely retelling of the region’s best-known dramas.
Look out for David Whetstone’s interview with Peter Flannery and report from the rehearsal room in the coming days.
MUSIC: What The World Needs Now - The Burt Bacharach Songbook
Where: Sage One, The Glasshouse
When: October 10
Bookings and info: theglasshouseicm.org
Burt Bacharach’s remarkable songbook gets the full orchestral treatment on Tyneside following a sold-out show at the Royal Albert Hall earlier in the summer.
Rumer and Shaun Escoffery – both of whom worked with Bacharach – are joined by Mercury-nominated singer-songwriter Ed Harcourt and the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra, conducted by Bacharach’s long-time arranger and musical director Rob Shirakbari.
Between them, they’ll revisit a catalogue responsible for 52 UK Top 40 hits, including Walk on By, The Look of Love, Alfie, Anyone Who Had a Heart and Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head.
COMEDY: Rosie Holt - The Illegal Aliens Have Landed
Where: Northern Stage, Newcastle
When: October 17
Bookings and info: northernstage.co.uk
Rosie Holt and her MP alter-ego are back, this time with an extraterrestrial problem to deal with.
The Illegal Aliens Have Landed brings a sci-fi twist to Holt’s political satire as a government already wrestling with immigration policy faces the arrival of UFOs – and the small matter of aliens abducting and eating the British public.
Will ministers take decisive action, or simply insist they’re “waiting for the facts”?
Holt, whose online political sketches have made her a familiar face during the upheavals of recent years, brings the resulting chaos to Tyneside.
EXHIBITION: Under Development
Where: Newcastle Contemporary Art, High Bridge Works
When: October 17-November 29
Bookings and info: sidegallery.co.uk
What happens to communities when cities are demolished, rebuilt and regenerated?
Under Development brings together more than 50 years of documentary photography from Tyneside and East London to explore the consequences of decisions about housing and planning.
Drawing on the AmberSide Collection and Four Corners Archive, the exhibition captures streets disappearing, communities changing and arguments over who gets to shape the places we live.
Among the photographers represented are Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen, Chris Killip, Jimmy Forsyth, John Davies and Henri Cartier-Bresson. The free exhibition runs at Newcastle Contemporary Art from October 17 to November 29.
AUDIO: Radiophonicx presents… Unheard-of Journeys
Where: Cobalt Studios, Ouseburn
When: October 17
Bookings and info: cobaltstudios.co.uk
Audiences are being invited to settle in and listen as RADIOPHONICx returns to Cobalt for a second season of communal listening sessions devoted to international audio drama and sound art.
The first, Unheard-of Journeys – Listening into Outer Space, heads beyond Earth with four short works from the Netherlands, Spain, Iran and Georgia, including Laika, in which a Soviet scientist talks by radio to the dog orbiting Earth, and Bowie in Siberia, inspired by David Bowie’s 1973 train journey through the Soviet Union.
It’s the first of four themed Saturday sessions running at Cobalt until January.
THEATRE: It’s a Wonderful Us
Where: Northern Stage, Newcastle
When: October 17
Bookings and info: northernstage.co.uk
Darren and Ginger are a double act with a problem: they can’t agree on how to start the show.
Trapped in the faded glamour of a never-ending variety performance, they’re attempting to revive the spirit of Morecambe and Wise and Tommy Cooper when Ginger suggests turning Darren’s own life into material.
Recordings made with his father uncover stories of struggle, triumph and family secrets along the way.
The show comes from The Lawnmowers, the pioneering learning-disabled-led theatre company in Gateshead, and mixes old-school double-act comedy with echoes of It’s a Wonderful Life. Fringe First and The Stage award-winning North East writer and director Steve Gilroy is at the helm.
The production has also booked dates at Queen’s Hall Arts, Hexham on November 12; and Washington Arts Centre on November 19. Tickets via the Lawnmowers website.
SCREENING: Music Video Preservation Society
Where: Tyneside Cinema
When: Friday, October 16, 7.45pm
Bookings and info: tynesidecinema.co.uk
Londoner David Knight first introduced a Tyneside audience to his Music Video Preservation Society back in May and a return was always on the cards.
There’s something a bit retro about music videos – something akin to vinyl and record shops – which is why David, expert and lifelong fan, decided to make a show of them.
“Some music videos are art in their own right, amazing pieces of creativity, but they also have social and cultural importance,” he said last time, when joined on stage by Semera Khan, creative director at Polydor Records.
“One of the good things about doing the show is that although I know a lot about the people who make music videos, you can still find things and go ‘Wow! That’s great’.
“There’s a lot of material to work with.”
This return show is part of the Mercury Prize 2026 fringe programme which has upwards of 30 events going on across Newcastle and Gateshead from October 15-22.
David’s guests will be Lulu Vicedomini, director of Tyneside band Knats’ Bowling Ball video, and Chris Turner (aka Favourite Colour: Black) who directed videos for Suede’s Antidepressants album.
Videos made for Mercury-nominated albums will feature heavily, with David introducing them from the stage.
THEATRE: Jarrow Marches: A Play & Songs
Where: Alberta Social Club, Railway Street, Jarrow
When: Saturday, October 10, 11am and 2pm
Bookings and info: customshouse.co.uk
Ninety years ago, the 200 Jarrow marchers – or crusaders, as they’re also known – were on their way to London, on foot.
They hoped that at the end of their gruelling 300 mile trek, they would be able to meet government ministers and spark an end to unemployment in their town.
While they were welcomed all along the route, they didn’t meet the powers-that-be and returned home thinking they had failed.
But their gesture gained wide attention for a serious issue and it is now remembered as a significant moment in history.
Writer Tom Kelly, who is from Jarrow, interviewed surviving marchers in 1973 and tells their story in this short drama to be performed by a professional cast of five actors and a musician.
It is directed by Andrew Dawson who says the social club is near to where the marchers got off the train on their return from London.
The story of the march is told from the perspective of a man called Robert and his family with the aim of “bringing the past into conversation with Jarrow today”.
THEATRE: World’s On Fire
Where: Arc, Stockton
When: October 15 (1pm), 16 and 17 (7pm)
Bookings and info: arconline.co.uk
Vici Wreford-Sinnott’s new play aims to show “what can happen when a town comes together to face global challenges through local strength”.
Vici is an award-winning disabled writer/director who champions disability arts through her Little Cog theatre company and the Stomping Grounds Festival which provides a platform for new work and challenges perceptions of learning disabled people.
Her latest festival contribution draws on the stories she has heard when spending time with residents and environmental groups in Stockton and across the Tees Valley.
The play will be performed by professional actors Angela Rose, Audrey Cook, Beth Samuels and Philip Harrison alongside a community cast, a World’s on Fire choir and a movement chorus.
Says Vici: “World’s on Fire is about community. It’s about keeping your heads up when the world tries to say you’re rubbish.
“It’s about the things people love, the beauty all around us, remembering to breathe, friendship and this town.
“It’s about you. It’s about me.”
Performances are ‘pay what you decide’.
THEATRE: Dom Joly: Trigger Happy TV
Where: Whitley Bay Playhouse; Alnwick Playhouse
When: October 11; October 16 (7.30pm both venues)
Booking & Info: domjoly.tv
Anyone remember Trigger Happy TV? Possibly it was one of the last comedy shows that people talked about at work next day – because in 2000, when it launched on Channel 4, people still tended to watch the same things.
It featured comedian Dom Joly in crazy scenarios that were secretly filmed, with him usually the one looking daft.
Favourite scenes included Joly shouting into a giant mobile phone: “I’M IN THE LIBRARY.” This when it was still novel to hear people having intimate one-sided conversations in public.
Another favourite skit had a chef chasing an actor in a rat costume out of a restaurant.
This is the 25th anniversary tour although strictly speaking this is the 26th anniversary.
Joly explains: “I played a handful of shows in autumn that sold out. We were inundated with requests for more shows - so here they are.”
Fans will see favourite moments from the show – including that phone – and Dom will share some behind-the-scenes stories. And they’re advised to “expect the unexpected”.
PERFORMANCE: Words of Love
Where: Lit & Phil, Newcastle (and touring)
When: Tuesday, October 13, 6pm
Bookings and info: litandphil.org.uk
The Border Readers are at large again (that’s readers, not reivers - they’re after your ears, not your livestock), bringing literature performed by actors to a venue probably quite near you.
They are (they might as well introduce themselves) “regionally based professional actors with a wealth of performing experience in all media”.
And they add: “Since 2018 we have been presenting audio narratives on literary themes in libraries, art centres, galleries, hostelries, village halls, theatres, pubs, churches and historic houses across the English border counties and in Scotland.”
They include (variously) Janine Birkett, Roberta Kerr, Grace Kirby, Jacqueline Phillips, Wynne Potts, Bekah Sloan and, reading at all venues, Stephen Tomlin who in 1991 won the BBC’s Mastermind.
On their Words of Love tour, they will read from The Row, by Penelope Lively; Taking Flight, by Helen Hutchinson; Plastic Heart by Jeremy Page; and To Belong To, by Kerry Andrews, which was shortlisted for the 2018 BBC national short story award.
Catch The Border Readers all over the region in the coming weeks, including Wingates, Amble, Humshaugh, Cullercoats, Bellingham, Allendale, Morpeth, Hexham and at the Dennis Kilgallon Gallery at Whitfield. More details here.
CONCERT: Roscoe Piano Trio
Where: The Glasshouse, Gateshead
When: Saturday, October 10, 7pm
Bookings and info: theglasshouseicm.org
The Newcastle Chamber Music Society (NCMS) has a long history, having presented its first concerts back in 1880.
Its new series of six concerts begins in Sage Two at The Glasshouse with a trio that first came together in 2018.
It brings Martin Roscoe back to the North East in double quick time, for at the end of September he performed Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 23, ‘Appasionata’ at the Hexham Abbey Festival.
A hugely versatile musician, Martin has performed in many concert halls (including seven BBC Proms concerts at the Royal Albert Hall) and made more than 600 broadcasts.
He is also a professor of piano at the Guildhall School of Music in London.
Here he will be joined by his Roscoe Piano Trio colleagues, violinist Fenella Humphreys and cellist Jessica Burroughs.
To get the NCMS series under way, the trio will perform pieces by Mozart (Trio in G, K564), Tchakovsky (Trio in A minor) and British-American composer Rebecca Clarke (her Piano Trio of 1921) who, before the First World War, became one of the first female professional orchestral musicians in London.
STILL SHOWING
Theatre: The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists, The Playhouse, Horden, County Durham, until Oct 10. Read our review
Music: African Soul Rebels, The Glasshouse, Gateshead, Oct 9. Read our preview
Literature: Durham Book Festival, Gala Durham and elsewhere, Oct 9-11
Music: Grace Petrie, The Fire Station, Sunderland, Oct 8
Theatre: Twelve Angry Men, Darlington Hippodrome, until Oct 10
Music: The Blow Monkeys, Sage Two, The Glasshouse, Oct 7
Talks: Vanbrugh 300, Seaton Delaval Hall, Oct 8 and 15
Exhibition: Impressions of Light, Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle, until Mar 14, 2027
Theatre: All At Sea, Live Theatre, Newcastle, until Oct 10
Festival: Berwick Literary Festival, various venues across the town, until Oct 11
Exhibition: Hommage A Gaia, RePUBlic Gallery, Blyth, until Oct 24
Comedy: Susan Calman - Tall Tales, Sunderland Empire (Oct 2); and Tyne Theatre and Opera House (Nov 6)
Exhibition: Keiken: Seeds, Stones and Future Bones, Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, until Jan 17
Exhibition: Turner Prize 2026, MIMA, Centre Square, Middlesbrough, until Mar 29, 2027. Read our report from the opening
Theatre: Mrs Doubtfire the Musical, Newcastle Theatre Royal, Oct 11. Read our review
Exhibition: Baltic Open Submission, Baltic, Gateshead, until Apr 4, 2027
Screen: Forever Home, Channel 5
Exhibition: Kitchen Sink Realism, NGCA, Culture House Sunderland, until Jan 17
Audio: Music Lives Here podcast, Your ears, via wherever you get your podcasts
Screen: Poised, STV player
Exhibition: Victory Over the Sun: Adventures with Light, The Light, Aykley Heads, Durham, until Jan 17, 2027
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
Screen: Ashington AFC: Saving Our Club, available to stream on BBC iPlayer
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
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.
Radio: Si King on Desert Island Discs, BBC Sounds/iPlayer
Exhibition: Picture This: Someone Like Me, Great North Museum: Hancock, until Jan 2027
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
Comedy: Daniel Foxx - How Lovely, The Fire Station, Sunderland (Oct 28); The Witham, Barnard Castle (Oct 29); The Stand Newcastle (Nov 1)
Music: Paul Heaton, Utilita Arena Newcastle, Oct 29
Event: An Intimate Evening with Trevor Horn: Adventures In Modern Recording, Gala Theatre Durham, Oct 31
Theatre: The Hollow, Newcastle Theatre Royal, Nov 10-14
Music: Leo Sayer - Can’t Stop Loving You, Newcastle o2 City Hall, Nov 12
Music: Blazin’ Fiddles, The Fire Station, Sunderland, Nov 22
Theatre: Legally Blonde, Sunderland Empire, Dec 1-5
2027
Theatre: CATS, Sunderland Empire, Jan 26-30; and Newcastle Theatre Royal, Jun 8-19
Comedy: Pierre Novellie - Okay, One More and Then Bedtime, Northern Stage, Feb 11
Comedy: The Fast Show Live, Newcastle o2 City Hall, Feb 18 (tickets on sale Friday, Oct 9 at 12pm)
Music: N-Dubz, Utilita Arena Newcastle, Feb 27 (tickets on sale Oct 9, 10am)
Music: Joe Webb, Sage Two, The Glasshouse, Mar 4
Comedy: Amy Gledhill - Thanks for Having Me, The Stand Newcastle, Apr 22; and Arc Stockton (Apr 23)
Music: Richard Thompson - Hippies, Thugs and Heroes Band Tour, Sage One, The Glasshouse, May 5
Music: Simple Minds, Utilita Arena Newcastle, May 13
🎄 FESTIVE FORECAST 🎄
Event: Christmas in the Victoria Tunnel, Victoria Tunnel, Ouseburn, Nov 29, Dec 6
Family: The Winter Lights, The Alnwick Garden, Nov 20-Jan 3
Music: G4 at Christmas, Durham Cathedral, Nov 23
Music: Smoove and Turrell Xmas Party, Gosforth Civic Theatre, Dec 11
Music: Carols by Candlelight, Hexham Abbey, Dec 22-23
Family: The Plotters’ Forest Enchanted Christmas Trail, Raby Castle, Park & Gardens, Nov 14-Jan 3
Family: Kielder Winter Wonderland, Kielder, Northumberland, Nov 28-Dec 23
Family: AGLOW, Auckland Palace, Bishop Auckland, Nov 20-Jan 3
Market: Christmas Craft Fair, Belsay Hall, Castle and Gardens, Nov 21-22
Music: The Christmas Orchestra, Middlesbrough Cathedral, Dec 18
Event: Christmas Nights at the Museum, Hopetown Darlington, Dec 18-20
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, you’ve got to be on your starting blocks, as we’ve got a pair of tickets to see comedian Catherine Bohart’s show, Borrowing Trouble at The Stand Newcastle on Thursday, October 8. (That’s this Thursday!)
The Irish comic turns her attention to a subject she knows plenty about in her new show: worry.
It sees the 38-year-old - who you might recognise from appearances on the likes of Live at the Apollo, QI, The Last Leg and Mock the Week - take a deep dive into her OCD alongside the stresses and joys of buying her own home, moving in with her girlfriend and reaching therapist number five.
HOW TO ENTER:
To be in with a chance of winning, simply email MePlease@culturednortheast.co.uk using the subject line: TROUBLE by 12pm TOMORROW (Wednesday, October 7).
The winner, who will be selected at random, will be notified within two 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.