Hello and welcome to another Curated Culture.
We’ve been enjoying our weekly wander through the North East’s cultural offerings and have emerged with another selection of things we reckon are worth your time and attention.
You’ll find our featured picks for the coming couple of weeks below, along with more recommendations in STILL SHOWING and a look further ahead in NOW BOOKING and FESTIVE FORECAST.
Our Big Christmas Lists are also on their way (if slightly delayed), as we attempt to bring some order to the ever-growing collection of festive shows, concerts, markets and assorted seasonal goings-on.
Meanwhile, we’ve got another subscriber prize draw, offering the chance to win four tickets to the opening weekend (November 21 or 22) of The Santa Experience at Life Science Centre, Newcastle.
You’ll find all the details for entering at the end of the newsletter.
Thanks for reading.
Sam (Wonfor) and Dave (Whetstone)
Professionally preoccupied with North East culture
SCREEN/EVENT: Reclaim the Frame presents: Being Heumann + post-film discussion
Where: Tyneside Cinema, Newcastle
When: November 18
Bookings and info: tynesidecinema.co.uk
When the US government failed to act on disability rights legislation in 1977, activist Judy Heumann and hundreds of fellow campaigners took matters into their own hands, occupying a federal building and refusing to leave.
Their protest became the longest non-violent occupation of a federal building in American history and is the subject of Being Heumann, a new drama from Oscar-winning CODA director Sian Heder.
Ruth Madeley plays Heumann, with Mark Ruffalo as the government official facing mounting pressure from the protesters.
Presented by Reclaim The Frame, the screening will be followed by a discussion with disability campaigner Jennie Berry and Dr Lucy Reynolds.
The film has descriptive subtitles and the discussion will be BSL interpreted.
CHORAL: Bach, Mass in F
Where: King’s Hall, Newcastle University
When: Saturday, November 14, 7.30pm
Bookings and info: newcastlebachchoir.org.uk
The venerable Newcastle Bach Choir, under conductor Eric Cross, is back in action at the weekend headlining JS Bach’s Mass in F.
This is the first of Bach’s so-called short masses (listed BWV 233 in the Bach Works Catalogue – or Bach-Werke- Verzeichnis, according to the German musicologist who published it in 1950).
Bach buffs will know all about that and the three cantatas – numbers 103, 108 and 128 - which make up the programme.
But will they have heard them performed live before?
The three, dating from 1725, are among the nine – among more than 200 that Bach composed - that were set to words by German poet Christiana Mariana von Ziegler.
They are rarely performed and will be tackled on Saturday for what the choir believes will be the first time in its 111-year history.
The choir will be joined by the musicians of Newcastle Baroque on their period instruments and soloists Anna Dias (soprano), a Newcastle University and Samling Academy graduate, along with Tim Morgan (alto), Samuel Boden (tenor) and Peter Harvey (baritone).
COMEDY: Gary On Laughing
Where: The Fire Station, Sunderland
When: November 15
Bookings and info: thefirestation.org.uk
Gary Delaney’s last tour ran for two and a half years, taking in 378 performances… and he’s back on the road for another marathon meander.
Known for his quick-fire one-liners and a sense of humour which manages to be colourful and dark at the same time, the former Mock the Week regular has racked up millions of online views, including more than 60 million for his appearance on Live at the Apollo.
He’s also married to South Shields comedian Sarah Millican, so the North East should feel like familiar territory.
Expect plenty of laughs, a fair bit of filth and a relentless parade of punchlines.
He’s back in the region next year at the Tyne Theatre and Opera House, Newcastle on Mar 18; at Stockton Globe on Jun 18.
POETRY: Brian Bilston - How to Lay an Egg with a Horse Inside
Where: The Fire Station, Sunderland
When: Thursday, November 12, 7.30pm
Bookings and info: thefirestation.org.uk
Music normally rules the roost at The Fire Station but the person laying this particular egg is a poet. And – get this – there aren’t many tickets left to shift.
Poetry, in the scheme of things, tends to be regarded as niche but Brian Bilston has cracked it.
His sharp, quirky and often very funny poems have helped him garner more than 500,000 social media followers and means his books tend not to gather dust in shops or libraries.
Here’s a Bilston poem with a political message…
The Power of Poetry
with things falling apart
and anarchy let loose,
it was only poetry, he found,
which had any use
so he reached for his copy
of The Complete Works of Yeats
and bludgeoned the President
of the United States
Not, I’m sure, that he will be condoning violence when he appears in Sunderland to read from his new book (see title at top) which he describes as “a book to help people overcome their suspicion (or loathing) of poetry, and maybe even encourage a few to write it”.
FESTIVAL: Books on Tyne
Where: Lit & Phil and Newcastle City Library
When: November 19-28
Bookings and info: booksontyne.co.uk
The Newcastle book festival is almost upon us and once again split between the two city libraries – both different but similarly dedicated to books and reading.
If you head to the City Library on opening night – Thursday, November 19 (6.30pm) – you can catch Michael Bracewell talking about his The Smiths: A Novella to author and journalist Daniel James.
Described as “wildly inventive and magnificently surreal”, the book recounts the impact of an unconventional pop group on one man’s life.
Meanwhile at the Lit & Phil (7.30pm) you can hear two poets with a shared interest in the nature of creativity talking about their latest collections.
They are Katharine Towers, whose The Worrying Rose is published by Picador, and Helen Farish’s Monet’s Broom, published by event sponsor Bloodaxe Books.
After that come Steph McGovern, Tahmima Anam, Andrew Michael Hurley, Sean O’Brien, Trevor Wood, William Tullett, Chris Bowlby and more.
Subjects range from a history of smells (Tullett) to English rituals (O’Brien) and genres include fiction (plenty of crime, of course), non-fiction, poetry as mentioned and even a dash of drama.
THEATRE: The Hollow, Agatha Christie
Where: Newcastle Theatre Royal
When: Until November 14
Bookings and info: theatreroyal.co.uk
Before Jack and his beanstalk take root at Newcastle Theatre Royal for panto season, there’s a murder mystery to solve.
Hercule Poirot is hoping for a peaceful country retreat, but as anyone familiar with Agatha Christie’s Belgian detective will know, that’s rarely how things turn out.
At an elegant country estate, a gathering of guests is interrupted by a gunshot, leaving a body, a smoking revolver and plenty of suspects.
Peter Polycarpou (Birds of a Feather, Evita, The Brutalist) plays Poirot in this new staging, directed by Lucy Bailey, whose previous Christie productions include Murder on the Orient Express and Death on the Nile.
EXHIBITION: Timepiece
Where: City Lounge, Culture House, Sunderland
When: November 16 for a year
Bookings and info: culturehousesunderland.co.uk
There’s a new reason to watch the clock at Culture House Sunderland, where the city’s past will come to life every hour for the next year.
Launching on November 16, Timepiece draws on a remarkable collection of archive films, photographs and memorabilia, from 1950s bus journeys and ship launches at Doxford’s to glassblowing, Vaux Breweries, football at Roker Park and the changing face of Sunderland’s shops.
Old tram tickets, postcards and beer mats also make an appearance.
Created by The Futureheads’ Ross Millard, video and sound artist Jeremy Bradfield and creative technologist Ben Lawrence, the installation combines 72 film collages, music and sound across 36 screens over three storeys, with a different 50-second sequence every hour.
Leanne Littlewood, Culture House director says: “Timepiece captures exactly what Culture House was created to do. It takes the stories, creativity and collective memory of Sunderland and brings them together in a way that is accessible, surprising and uniquely rooted in our city.”
EVENT: Bowes Lates
Where: Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle
When: November 21, 6-9pm
Bookings and info: thebowesmuseum.org.uk
One of the region’s most beautiful venues opens late for an evening inspired by light and landscapes.
Tickets are £15 (free to members, carers, full-time students and under 18s).
There will be various tours by museum experts, including executive director Hannah Fox who will guide visitors to five of her favourite items from the museum’s collection.
Spoken word poet Lizzie Lovejoy will perform, artist Jane Young will show how to make an origami decoration and a silent disco will be available for movers and shakers.
For the curious, there’ll be a chance to enter the museum vaults and also to join fashion and textiles curator Rachel Whitworth to learn about the Blackborne Lace Collection.
There will be two ticketed attractions: Brush & Bubbles, a creative painting and dining experience in the Bowes picture gallery led by artist Betty Brown; and Framing the Landscape, offering the chance to create a landscape scene inside a box frame inspired by the current Impressions of Light exhibition.
The shop will be open, as will the café with a seasonal offering, and of course the famous silver swan showpiece will be in action.
EVENT: Zine Fest
Where: Star and Shadow Cinema, Newcastle
When: November 22, 11am-3pm
Bookings and info: starandshadow.org.uk
Newcastle Zine Fest is back for a second outing, bringing together DIY publishers, illustrators, comic creators and assorted creative types for an afternoon celebrating all things handmade and independently published.
The free event features a zine market, workshops, badge-making, doodling, exhibitions and plenty of opportunities to swap creations and ideas*.
There’s also a Christmas gift exchange, food bank collection and the Star and Shadow café to keep everyone fuelled.
Newcastle College illustration students have been busy designing posters for the event.
*For anyone who prefers a calmer browsing experience, there’s a quiet hour from 11am to noon.
THEATRE: American mini-series
Where: Live Theatre, Newcastle
When: November 12-14, 7.30pm
Bookings and info: live.org.uk
They congregate under one flag and tend to be judged by the decisions of one man as conveyed by reporters.
But there are many more versions of America than you might assume from the news in recent years.
This series of three short dramas – nominally readings but they’ll be highly performative – is a reminder that Trump’s idea of America doesn’t tell the whole story.
On Thursday, brothers Valentine Olukoga and David Alade will play American siblings in Topdog/Underdog by Suzan-Lori Parks, a Pulitzer Prize-winning “darkly comic fable of brotherly love and family identity”.
On Friday, Christopher Eccleston takes the lead in A public reading of an unproduced screenplay about the death of Walt Disney by Lucas Hnath, with Joe Caffrey, Lauren Waine and Ryan Nolan also in the cast.
Finally, on Saturday, Karen Traynor, Karina Jones, Lucy Eve Mann and Nick Blakely will read John by Annie Baker, described by Live as “a ghost story, a love story, a masterpiece by one of the greatest dramatists in contemporary theatre.”
It tells of a Brooklyn couple navigating the painful end of their relationship.
THEATRE: Noises Off
Where: People’s Theatre, Newcastle
When: November 17 to 21, 7.30pm
Bookings and info: peoplestheatre.co.uk
Michael Frayn’s comedy with its play-within-a-play had its first run at the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith, in 1982 with a cast including Patricia Routledge and Paul Eddington.
And it has never really gone away…
It’s regularly revived and amateur theatre companies love it. If the People’s haven’t staged it more than once, Cultured North East will eat five plates of sardines in one go.
The play is about a hapless company of actors doing their best to rehearse and perform a comedy called Nothing On which clearly has nothing going for it.
The fun in Frayn’s creation is that we – the audience – see a bit of what’s on stage and a lot more of what happens behind the scenes where tempers fray and romance struggles to blossom.
Is this what really goes on behind the scenes at the theatre? If you’ve ever yearned to be a fly on the dressing room wall, this might be the nearest you’ll get.
Spare a thought, though, for director Lloyd. He’s the poor sap trying to lick this rabble into shape before the audience comes wandering in.
FESTIVAL: Dickens Festival North
Where: Various Newcastle venues
When: November 17-December 24
Bookings and info: theassemblyrooms.org
Charles Dickens performed at Newcastle’s Assembly Rooms in 1852, and his connection to the city is being celebrated with the first Dickens Festival North, part of the venue’s 250th anniversary programme.
Running from November 17 to Christmas Eve, events include candlelit performances of The Signalman and The Ghost in the Bride’s Chamber, an immersive Victorian banquet, guided walks and a Muppet-themed musical tribute.
Dickens’s great-great-grandson Gerald performs two shows, while A Christmas Carol gets three different treatments, including Alfie Joey’s solo version at Newcastle Cathedral and the ever-popular Dickens by Candlelight events at Alderman Fenwick’s House, where Dickens once stayed.
EVENT: Last of the Rapper Sword Makers
Where: Amble, Northumberland
When: Sunday, November 15, 3pm
Bookings and info: drywaterarts.uk
Frank Lee, 81, is the country’s last master rapper sword maker and at Dry Water Arts Centre (Wellwood Street, Amble NE65 0FG) they’re looking to preserve his legacy.
Rapper sword dancing, they say, is one of the region’s most vibrant traditions, its heritage so deeply rooted in its mining communities that it’s known as the miners’ dance.
It has spread across the globe, with dance teams performing in North America, Australasia and beyond.
But every dancer relies on the flexible steel swords crafted in the UK by ex-teacher Frank – meaning this is an endangered tradition.
“By celebrating Frank Lee’s contribution and documenting his craft in detail, we aim to preserve his knowledge and make it accessible as a practical resource for future makers,” say the Dry Water team.
“In doing so, we hope to keep open the possibility of future skills development and help ensure that the specialist knowledge needed to make rapper swords is not lost.”
A National Lottery Heritage Fund grant will help to sustain a project running until next September.
Sunday’s free launch event will include a demonstration of rapper sword dancing, emphasising its speed and precision.
STILL SHOWING
Advert: John Lewis Christmas advert - Gloria and Pickles, on screens of all kinds, all the time between now and Christmas
Family: Hexham Lantern Parade, Sele Park bandstand, Nov 13, 6pm
Music: Squeeze plus very special guest Billy Bragg, Newcastle o2 City Hall and Stockton Globe, Nov 16 and 17 respectively
Dance: Pitman, Alnwick Playhouse, Nov 11, 11.30am and 7.30pm
Exhibition: Are You Alright? Darlington Library Art Gallery, until Nov 25
Theatre: Billy Elliot the Musical, Sunderland Empire, until Nov 28
Exhibition: By One’s Light, VANE, Gateshead, Nov 11 to 14
Talk: Finding Audrey Amiss, Culture House Sunderland, Nov 12 at 6pm
Theatre: It’s a Wonderful Us, Queen’s Hall, Hexham (Nov 12); and Washington Arts Centre (Nov 19)
Screen: The Northumbria Mysteries, BBC One and BBC iPlayer, Fridays at 2pm until Dec 18
Exhibition: Pre-Raphaelites: Art and Poetry, Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle, until Feb 13
Event/Screen/Radio: Mercury Prize 2026, Utilita Arena Newcastle, BBC Sounds and BBC iPlayer
Exhibition: Under Development, Newcastle Contemporary Art, High Bridge Works, until Nov 29
Exhibition: Impressions of Light, Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle, until Mar 14, 2027 Read more
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
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 28, 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
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: Flo and Joan - With Feeling, Tyne Theatre and Opera House, Newcastle, Nov 27
Music: Jools Holland and His Rhythm and Blues Orchestra, The Stockton Globe, Dec 2; and Newcastle o2 City Hall, Dec 3
Theatre: Legally Blonde, Sunderland Empire, Dec 1-5
Music: Music Against Poverty, The Fire Station Sunderland, Dec 6
Comedy: Laffs for Kids, Newcastle o2 City Hall, 12pm and 5.30pm, Dec 13
Comedy: Mark Thomas - 40 In Stand Up Years, The Stand Newcastle, Dec 13
2027
Music: Nerina Pallot, Playhouse Whitley Bay, Jan 27
Music: Poppy Ackroyd, Gosforth Civic Theatre, Feb 26
Comedy: Jason Cook - Nothing but Happy Bits, Newcastle o2 City Hall, Feb 27
Theatre: The Labyrinth, Northern Stage, Newcastle, Mar 17
Music: The Lindisfarne Story - The Road to Kingdom Come, various North East venues, Apr 9-May 1
Music: Richard Thompson - Hippies, Thugs and Heroes Band Tour, Sage One, The Glasshouse, May 5
Comedy: Harriet Dyer- Easily Distra…, The Stand Newcastle, May 29
Theatre: CATS, Sunderland Empire, Jan 26-30; and Newcastle Theatre Royal, Jun 8-19
Theatre: SIX, Stockton Globe, Sept 21-25
Music: Billy Ocean, Utilita Arena Newcastle, Nov 5 (Tickets on sale 10am, Nov 12)
Theatre: Robin Hood, Newcastle Theatre Royal, Nov 23-Jan 9 (tickets on general sale Nov 24)
🎄 FESTIVE FORECAST 🎄
Music: Jez Lowe and the Bad Pennies – Defrosted!, Various North East venues, Dec 15-20
Comedy: Matt Reed’s Big Christmas Bash, The Stand Newcastle, Dec 15
Screen: The Man Who Invented Christmas, Star and Shadow Cinema, Newcastle, Dec 5
Music: Rock Choir Christmas, Newcastle Cathedral, Dec 2
Exhibition/Display: Nativity at the Tower, Auckland Tower, Bishop Auckland, Nov 20-Jan 3
Screen: The Nightmare Before Christmas, Beamish Museum, County Durham, Dec 3-4
Family: The Canny Christmas Show, Discovery Museum, Newcastle, Dec 12, 13, 19 and 20
Market: Hexham Christmas Fair, Hexham Abbey, Dec 12
Event: Durham Christmas Festival, Locations across Durham City, Dec 4-6
Music: Live at the LINK: Globe Xmas Takeover 2026, Stockton Globe, Dec 18
COMPETITION TIME
Welcome to our latest newsletter prize draw – offering our subscribers an exclusive chance to win tickets to see or do something great.
Now then, Santa and his elves are heading back to Newcastle’s Life Science Centre, and we’ve got the chance for one lucky group of four to join them during the opening weekend on November 21 or 22.
This year’s Santa Experience (running from November 21 to December 23) takes visitors into a new corner of the North Pole, where the elves are busy preparing for Christmas Eve.
Children can meet Father Christmas and enjoy a new festive science offering, The Elf Show featuring live experiments in the elves’ workshop.
Aimed at ages three to 10, tickets also include admission to Life, with its collection of moving dinosaurs and the fulldome show What Santa Sees.
HOW TO ENTER:
To be in with a chance of winning, simply email MePlease@culturednortheast.co.uk using the subject line: ‘All I want for Christmas is a trip to Life’ by 5pm on Sunday, November 15.
The winner, who will be selected at random, will be notified within 24 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 (the family tickets is for November 21 or 22 only) - 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.
