Curated Culture 11.11.25
Our weekly recommendations round up from North East stages and cultural venues
Hello and welcome to this week’s Curated Culture – your weekly collection of signposts to some of the gigs, performances, exhibitions and cultural goings-on we think are worth braving the chill for over the next couple of weeks.
Each Tuesday we gather up a double handful of what’s coming up, what’s still running, and stuff further on in the calendar – so you can skip the endless scrolling and get straight to planning.
If you’re new here, here’s how this newsletter plays out:
🗓️ Top Picks – standout events over the next fortnight
📌 Still Showing – listings from earlier mailouts still available to enjoy
📅 Now Booking – future highlights to get in the diary early
🎁 Subscriber Prize Draw – this week, win a pair of tickets to see Glory Be It’s Gavin Webster at Tyne Theatre and Opera House on November 21.
Thanks, as always, for reading, sharing and supporting what we’re doing.
Sam (Wonfor) & Dave (Whetstone)
Like Chas and Dave, but with less hair and better accents
PS: If you haven’t liked/followed/high fived us on our socials, you can rectify that on Facebook, Instagram and Blue Sky
FESTIVAL: Lumiere
Where: Durham and Locomotion, Shildon
When: Thursday, November 13 to Saturday, November 15
Bookings and info: lumiere-festival.com
What seems likely to be the last Lumiere festival of light-based art in Durham takes place this weekend after the decision by London-based producer Artichoke to pull the plug.
It seems discussions had already taken place about what form the festival might take in future, following eight previous iterations including the spectacular debut in 2009.
The ninth may be the best. “Our aim,” state the organisers on the website, “is to make Durham appear to be transformed as if by magic.”
This they generally do, although they add that visitors will notice little of the “immense infrastructure” needed to make Lumiere happen. It has been a mammoth undertaking every two years.
Lumiere 2025 takes place over three evenings from 5pm to 10pm. Tickets (bookable from the website) are required to enter the central controlled zone in Durham City throughout each evening.
More than half the installations are outside the ticketed zone and tickets are not required for Shildon where three installations at Locomotion celebrate 200 years of rail passenger history.
Durham Cathedral, the focal point for many, hosts Everyone Ever (Nighthouse Studio, USA), transforming the nave into “a poetic confrontation in stone and light”, while, in the cloister, Solace, by UK-based Amelia Kosminsky, comprises hundreds of handmade lanterns.
Palace Green is set to become Elysium Garden, created by UK-based Jigantics featuring tall illuminated flowers.
But why not venture forth and find your own highlights one more time?
MUSIC: Gary Numan
Where: Newcastle 02 City Hall
When: November 12
Bookings and info: academymusicgroup.com
Electronic pioneer Gary Numan is marking 45 years since the release of his influential 1980 album Telekon with a UK tour revisiting it in full… and rocking up to the City Hall this week.
A defining record in the evolution of electronic and post-punk music, Telekon produced tracks including We Are Glass, I Die: You Die (included on the cassette release) and This Wreckage.
The anniversary setlist also features material from across Numan’s extensive back catalogue, tracing his shift from synth-pop pioneer to industrial innovator.
SCREEN: Jools Holland’s New Orleans Jukebox
Where: BBC Four and then iPlayer
When: November 16, 9.30pm
More info: bbc.co.uk
Forty years after it first aired, The Tube’s award-winning music documentary Walking to New Orleans returns to the screen in a celebratory two-hour special which sees Jools Holland revisit the film he fronted when he was 26.
Produced by a North East crew for the groundbreaking eighties music show - made in Newcastle by Tyne Tees TV for Channel 4 – the film was directed by my excellent and sadly late dad, Geoff Wonfor and captured unforgettable performances from legends including Fats Domino, Lee Dorsey, Allen Toussaint, Dr John and The Neville Brothers.
In other scenes, Sting played the part of a busker while Robbie Coltrane and Paula Yates also appeared.
In this anniversary broadcast - which fittingly has The Tube’s producer, Malcolm Gerrie as executive producer - the original hour-long programme will be replayed in full, alongside new reflections from Jools as he explores his lifelong love of New Orleans rhythm and blues.
Sitting at the piano, he shares the stories behind the making of Walking to New Orleans and introduces a handpicked selection of companion archive treasures from the BBC vaults – featuring the likes of Mahalia Jackson, Chris Barber and Ottilie Patterson, Louis Armstrong, Irma Thomas, Allen Toussaint and Trombone Shorty.
I know I’ve got DNA in the game, but this really will be a lovely, lovely thing to enjoy of a Sunday evening.
Look out for our interview with Jools Holland and Malcolm Gerrie ahead of the programme airing.
EXHIBITION: Tom Hume - Retrospective
Where: Ushaw Historic House, Chapels & Gardens
When: Until January 18, 2026
Bookings and info: ushaw.org
The first major exhibition celebrating the life and work of Durham artist and teacher Tom Hume (1942–2023) has opened at Ushaw in County Durham.
Co-curated by Ushaw and the artist’s widow, Barbara, it brings together oil paintings, preparatory drawings and sketchbooks spanning a lifetime of creativity and precision.
Hume’s work charts a journey from portraiture and figurative studies to the poised abstraction of his later years, defined by sensitivity to light, colour and emotional depth. His final painting, gifted to the doctor who saved his sight, reflects both his gratitude and his enduring fascination with observing.
Andrew Heard, visitor programmes manager at Ushaw, said: “Tom Hume’s work represents a lifetime’s devotion to art, not only in his own practice but through the many students and fellow artists he inspired.
“This exhibition is a moving tribute to his vision and vitality. Visitors will find themselves drawn into the honesty, craftsmanship, and quiet brilliance that defined his career. It’s a privilege for Ushaw to host this first full retrospective.”
MUSIC & FOOD: Afternoon Tea and Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
Where: Sage One, The Glasshouse
When: November 23, 1pm
Bookings and info: theglasshouseicm.org
When The Beatles got in the studio to record the seminal album, Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, it’s doubtful that would have anticipated it becoming a soundtrack for an on-stage buffet… but finger sandwiches, scones and Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds sounds like a winning combination to us!
Part listening party, part afternoon tea, The Glasshouse is inviting people onto the Sage One stage to enjoy a special couple of hours soaking up the iconic long player while sipping on coffee, tea or fizz and feasting on a selection of pastries and what have you.
COMEDY: Josh Widdicombe - Not My Cup of tea
Where: Tyne Theatre and Opera House and Stockton Globe
When: November 17 and 18, respectively
Bookings and info: joshwiddicombe.com
Josh Widdicombe is back on the road with his latest show, reflecting on 15 years in comedy and wondering whether he’s finally mastered it - or just wasted a decade and a half trying.
Spoiler: we reckon he’s doing canny, as the two already busy dates in the North East can attest.
Known for The Last Leg and the hit podcast Parenting Hell with Rob Beckett, Josh’s take on modern life remains as dry, self-aware and tea-fuelled as ever.
Expect musings on parenthood, pop culture and the small absurdities that make up a British existence - delivered with the familiar mix of exasperation and charm that’s has seen him become on the UK’s favourite comics.
MUSIC: Sheelanagig - 20th Anniversary Tour
Where: Gosforth Civic Theatre, Newcastle
When: November 20
Bookings and info: gosforthcivictheatre.co.uk
Sheelanagig are celebrating two decades of riotous folk revelry with the release of St Congar’s Walking Stick and a UK tour that promises the same wild energy that’s kept them dancing on stages around the world.
Drawing on a rich mix of European folk traditions - from medieval melodies to modern folk-rock - the band blend soaring flute, driving strings and thunderous percussion into music that’s impossible to sit still through.
Expect masterful musicianship, playful stagecraft and an atmosphere that shakes the floorboards.
DISCUSSION: Why Read Modern Poetry?
Where: Lit & Phil, Newcastle
When: Wednesday, November 12, 6pm
Bookings and info: litandphil.org.uk
You might think that’s a very good question. Why indeed?
Likely to come equipped with some compelling answers are those leading this panel discussion – much garlanded poet Sean O’Brien, Bloodaxe Books founding editor Neil Astley and Alice Mullen, manager of the Poetry Book Society.
Funnily enough, the question has been posed before… and in this very place.
Michael Roberts delivered a lecture at the Lit & Phil in 1937 called Why Read Modern Poetry?
He was an influential poet, critic and editor who also had two spells as a teacher at Newcastle’s Royal Grammar School in the late 1920s and 1930s.
In the latter decade he published three anthologies, including the popular Faber Book of Modern Verse (1936), which introduced many readers to the poetry of W. H. Auden, Cecil Day-Lewis, Stephen Spender and others.
For a time, Roberts lived with his Glaswegian wife, Janet Smith, literary journalist, mountain climber and champion of Scottish literature, on Fern Avenue, Jesmond.
The couple (and this has entailed a steep learning curve) built up a small mountain of mountaineering books which eventually became a key part of the Oxford Mountaineering Library.
He died of leukaemia in 1948, aged just 46; she lived until she was 93, not quite seeing in the 21st Century.
But this is to digress… the books live on and so does Michael Roberts’ pertinent question, evidently still a catalyst to debate.
MUSIC: English Teacher
Where: NX, Newcastle
When: November 18, 7pm
Bookings and info: nxnewcastle.com
A year on from their shock Mercury Music Prize triumph, Leeds indie rockers English Teacher embark on the final leg of their two-year long tour in support of This Could Be Texas. To fill a gap in the release schedule, the quartet dropped This Could Be A Remix Album - reimagining their award-winning debut - in October to critical acclaim.
With a new long player slated for the summer of 2026, English Teacher have teased this month’s tour as a dry run for their hotly anticipated new tunes. Expect some exclusive drops, a few classics tweaked and the feeling of Christmas coming early thanks to one of the UK’s most exciting emerging acts. Be there or… be in Texas.
RADIO: Tom and Lauren Are Going OOT!
Where: BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds
When: From November 12
Info: bbc.co.uk
Geordie radio sitcom Tom and Lauren Are Going OOT! returns to BBC Radio 4 this week for a second series.
Written by and starring Tom Machell and Lauren Pattison, the five-part series is produced by Gateshead-based production company, Candle & Bell and follows the ups and downs of a millennial couple trying to make sense of life, love and… leaving the house on time.
Season two begins at 11pm on Wednesday (Nov 12), with episodes available on BBC Sounds after broadcast. Meanwhile series one is available to catch up on here.
Recorded at Pride Media Centre, the production, supported by North East Screen, features guest turns from Julian Clary, Louise Young and Sarah Balfour.
EXHIBITION: Lintukoto
Where: NewBridge Gallery, Shieldfield Centre, Stoddart Street, Newcastle
When: Until November 29
Bookings and info: thenewbridgeproject.com
The title of the exhibition is a word that, in Finnish mythology, describes a place of sanctuary at the end of the world, a place a bit like paradise where birds migrate to in winter.
Artist Henna Asikainen, who is Finnish but lives in Newcastle, is known for her delicate work inspired by migration and the natural world.
In this new exhibition, created with landscape architect Usue Ruiz Arana and sound artist and composer Ben Ponton, she asks us to wonder what ‘lintukoto’ might look like in a world shaped and destabilised by Man, the so called Anthropocene.
It’s a little like venturing into an indoor garden. Bamboo removed from a local garden (it was getting a bit much) has found a home here and there are sprigs of ash, victims of dieback.
But they support birds’ nests gathered by Henna, mostly found abandoned at the end of summer but some – supplied by an ornithologist in Kenya – woven from plastic waste, the only material available, by black-necked weaver birds.
A complementary soundtrack features the dawn chorus and the sound of bamboo. Yes, you read that right.
Running on a loop in the adjoining cinema is a wonderful film called The Flowers Stand Silently, Witnessing. It was made by filmmaker Theo Panagopoulos from rarely seen 1930s and ‘40s footage of wildflowers in Palestine that was found in a Scottish film archive.
This colourful world, known to the filmmaker’s grandparents, is, he says, “now actively being erased through current narratives, imagery and violence”. It’s a quiet eye-opener.
STILL SHOWING
Theatre: Big Ange, Live Theatre, Newcastle, until Nov 22
Theatre: Dear England, Newcastle Theatre Royal, until Nov 15
Music: Field Music - Twenty Years of Field Music, The Fire Station, Sunderland, Nov 14
Exhibition: Listening to the Voices of the Rivers, Newcastle Contemporary Art (NCA), 31-39 High Bridge, until Nov 22
Exhibition: Miniature Worlds - Little Landscapes from Thomas Bewick to Beatrix Potter, Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle, until Feb 28, 2026
Literature: Meet the Booker Prize Winner 2025, Tyneside Cinema, Newcastle, Nov 16, 6pm
Exhibition: Shipyard Faces and Intriguing Spaces, Old Low Light Heritage Centre, North Shields, until Dec 1
Exhibition: For All At Last Return and first major UK exhibition by filmmaker and artist Saodat Ismailova, Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, until Jun 7, 2026
Exhibition: The Light of Days Past, Granary Gallery, Berwick, until Feb 22, 2026
Visual Art: Gaia, Hexham Abbey, until Nov 16
Theatre: Shore Lines from the Border Readers, various venues all over the North East until Dec 4
Dance: Se Gaest/The Guest, Dance City, Newcastle (Dec 11) Read our review
Exhibition: Three Artists: Zac Weinberg, Joanna Manousis, and Anthony Amoako-Attah, National Glass Centre, Sunderland, until Jan 10, 2026
Exhibition: Joséphine: A Woman of Taste and Fashion, Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle, until March 2026
Music: The Young’uns Big Boro Bash, Middlesbrough Town Hall, Nov 15
Family: Disney on Ice - Find Your Hero, Utilita Arena Newcastle, Nov 19-23
Exhibition: Guiding Entities, MIMA, Middlesbrough, until Nov 23
Exhibition: The Art of Conservation, South Shields Museum & Art Gallery, Ocean Road, until Dec 6
Big screen: Expo Sunderland Pavilion, Keel Square, Sunderland, throughout 2025
Exhibition: Three artists, National Glass Centre, Sunderland, until January 10, 2026
Comedy: Cally Beaton - Namaste Mother F*ckers, Northern Stage (Feb 7); Alnwick Playhouse (Feb 17); Queen’s Hall, Hexham (Feb 19)
Exhibition: Works by Nathan Coley, Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle, until Mar 1, 2026
Exhibition: Pippa Hale: Pet Project, Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle, until March 1, 2026
Theatre: Sunny Afternoon, Stockton Globe, April 14-18, 2026
NOW BOOKING
Comedy: Count Arthur Strong is Charles Dickens in A Christmas Carol, The Fire Station, Sunderland, Nov 26; and Middlesbrough Town Hall, Nov 28
Music: Mumford and Sons, Utilita Arena Newcastle, Nov 29
Theatre: Kinky Boots, Sunderland Empire, Dec 2-6
Theatre: Foolympics, Alphabetti Theatre, Newcastle, Dec 11
Comedy: Impro Pantso (The Suggestibles), Live Theatre, Newcastle, Dec 18-19
2026
Comedy: The Eternal Shame of Sue Perkins, Tyne Theatre and Opera House, Newcastle, Feb 4
Theatre: Dita Von Teese’s Nocturnelle, Stockton Globe, Feb 11
Theatre: Matilda The Musical, Sunderland Empire, Feb 11-28
Event: Sunday for Sammy, Utilita Arena Newcastle, Feb 15
Comedy: Ross Noble - Cranium of Curiosities, Middlesbrough Town Hall, Feb 21
Theatre: I, Daniel Blake, Northern Stage, Newcastle, Mar 20-Apr 4
Theatre: Royal Shakespeare Company - Hamlet, Newcastle Theatre Royal, Mar 31-Apr 4
Music: Richard Ashcroft, Utilita Arena Newcastle, Apr 10
Comedy: Gary Delaney - Gary on Laughing, various North East venues May 7 to Nov 15
Music: The Pitmen Poets, various North East venues Jun 26 to Jul 12
Comedy: Laura Smyth - Born Aggy, ARC Stockton and The Stand Newcastle, Nov 13 and 14, respectively
COMPETITION TIME
Welcome to our latest newsletter prize draw, offering our subscribers an exclusive opportunity to win tickets to see or do something great.
This week, we’ve got a pair of tickets for Glory Be, It’s Gavin Webster at Tyne Theatre and Opera House, Newcastle on November 21.
Currently making his theatrical debut in Big Ange at Live Theatre, Gavin returns to the stand up stage with a big home turf date promising sharp, surreal and darkly funny routines.
Expect new material, sardonic one-liners, musical interludes and the kind of unpredictable finale that’s become his trademark.
A fixture of the region’s alternative comedy scene for decades, Gavin’s blend of bite, cynicism and absurdity has made him one of our most distinctive voices.
HOW TO ENTER:
To be in with a chance of winning, simply email MePlease@culturednortheast.co.uk using the subject line: 1,000 PANDAS by noon, (12pm) on Sunday, November 16, 2025.
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.