Welcome to another Curated Culture – your weekly invitation to see what’s happening across the North East and perhaps make a few plans while you’re at it.
We’ve been through the listings to bring you our latest recommendations for the fortnight ahead, along with a few reminders of things you might have missed first time around in STILL SHOWING.
There’s also plenty to get in the diary courtesy of NOW BOOKING, while FESTIVE FORECAST continues to gather pace, even if any notion of Christmas shopping has been firmly put in a drawer until Bonfire Night.
We also have another pair of tickets up for grabs. This week, you could be heading to Sage Two at The Glasshouse on October 20 at 8pm to see Hannah Peel & Beibei Wang: The Endless Dance – a musical meeting of minds, instruments and influences. You’ll find out how to enter at the bottom of the newsletter.
Enjoy the scroll, and thanks for your continued attention and support
Sam (Wonfor) and Dave (Whetstone)
Professionally preoccupied with North East Culture
EXHIBITION: Pre-Raphaelites: Art and Poetry
Where: Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle
When: Saturday, October 17 (until Feb 13, 2027)
Booking & Info: northeastmuseums.org.uk
Think of the Pre-Raphaelites and it’s most likely paintings that’ll spring to mind – the vivid, highly detailed canvases by the likes of John Everett Millais, Dante Gabriel Rossetti and William Holman Hunt.
The work divided opinion, fell out of fashion for a time but then became highly sought after. Nowadays Pre-Raph paintings are just the sort of eye candy needed for a ticketed exhibition.
But this new Laing attraction, as the title suggests, embraces words as well as pictures. The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, so called, included poets as well as painters.
Rossetti was a poet from a family of poets, which included his sister, Christina, while admiration for writers such as Chaucer, Dante, Keats and Tennyson is said to have brought the founding Pre-Raph painters together.
This eagerly awaited exhibition features over 100 paintings, drawings and objects, some borrowed from major collections and on show in Newcastle for the first time.
Prominent among them, of course, will be Holman Hunt’s Isabella and the Pot of Basil, illustrating a poem by Keats, a favourite since it was given to the Laing in 1953 by Dr Wilfred Hall.
COMEDY: Rich Hall - Chin Music
Where: Gosforth Civic Theatre and Gala Theatre Durham
When: October 16 and 17 respectively
Bookings and info: offthekerb.com
“Chin Music” can mean idle chatter - or a fast ball aimed a little too close for comfort. Both fit Rich Hall pretty well.
His comedy has always mixed laid-back rambling with sharp left turns, political jabs and gloriously unpredictable improvisation.
Decades into his career, the 71-year-old remains one of the most reliably funny and original stand-ups around. He’s bringing Chin Music to two more North East venues this week after a four-date visit earlier in the year.
JAZZ: Durham Jazz Festival
Where: Various venues
When: October 23-25
Bookings and info: durhamjazzfestival.co.uk
Durham has its brass and book festivals and now it has a jazz equivalent, conceived by directors Alan Patrickson, John Lyons and Richard Turner to broaden the live music offer across city and county.
An annual festival with broad audience appeal was their aim, “bringing the joy of live music to people who might not otherwise experience this genre, as well as seasoned jazz audiences”.
It was envisaged stars from outside the region would feature alongside North East talent.
So here it is, an inaugural blast of jazz across 10 venues over a long weekend with Swinburne Maddison LLP the headline sponsor.
Friday’s programme features Emma Fisk’s Hot Club Du Nord (Gala Studio, 1pm), Norwegian cellist Maja Bugge and pianist Dave Evans (Claypath Delicatessen, 7pm) and the Ronnie Scott’s All Stars with vocalist Polly Gibbons (Redhills, 8pm).
Saturday’s attractions include Rivkala (6pm) and Knats (9pm) at Fabio’s Bar and the Strictly Smokin’ Big Band with vocalist/trumpeter Marvin Muoneké (7.30pm) at Gala Durham.
On Sunday the Dean Stockdale Quartet with celebrate Oscar Peterson at Durham University Music School (1pm), the Marvin Muoneké Quartet will entertain at St Chad’s College (4pm), and Zoe Gilbey and Andy Champion will perform at Redhills (6pm) ahead of a double bill comprising King Pleasure & the Biscuit Boys and the Olivia Cuttill Quintet (8pm).
And there’s more…
EVENT: Professor Brian Cox - Emergence
Where: Utilita Arena Newcastle
When: October 17
Bookings and info: utilitaarena.co.uk
Big questions deserve a big stage, and Professor Brian Cox isn't doing things by halves. His latest world tour, Emergence, tackles everything from the origins of the universe to the mysteries of life itself, with cosmology, biology, philosophy and history all getting a look-in.
The physicist and BBC presenter has enlisted scientists, musicians, filmmakers and graphic artists to help bring it all to life on vast LED screens, backed by an impressive array of sound and lighting technology.
Following Horizons, which attracted almost half a million people worldwide, Cox reckons this is his most ambitious live show yet.
EVENT/SCREEN/RADIO: Mercury Prize 2026
Where: Utilita Arena Newcastle and BBC iPlayer
When: October 22
Bookings and info: Returns only, BBC Four and Radio 6
Newcastle is hosting the Mercury Prize for the second consecutive year next week, and although the Utilita Arena ceremony is sold out, the BBC has anyone who wants to watch and listen covered.
Sunderland’s Lauren Laverne returns as host to introduce performances from North East nominees JADE and Knats, alongside Dove Ellis, Florence + The Machine, Kojey Radical, Nia Archives, Olivia Dean, RAYE, Suede and Pulp.
Let’s see if one of our contenders can follow Sam Fender’s 2025 triumph. Tune in via BBC Radio 6 Music or BBC Four to find out, live or afterwards.
Meanwhile, the Mercury Prize Fringe runs from October 15-22, with a wide and varied programme featuring more than 30 events across Newcastle and Gateshead.
CLASSICAL: Sheku Kanneh-Mason
Where: Middlesbrough, Gateshead, Kendal
When: October 15, 16, 17 (all 7.30pm)
Bookings and info: theglasshouseicm.org
The hotshot young cellist joins Royal Northern Sinfonia for a lightning three-venue tour in which he will be centre stage to perform Camille Saint-Saëns’ Cello Concerto No. 1.
The piece, well received at its premiere in Paris in 1873, is widely considered one of the greatest of all cello concertos.
Few would seem as well equipped to convey its merits as the 27-year-old who followed up a Britain’s Got Talent appearance (along with his musically gifted siblings) by winning the prestigious BBC Young Musician competition 10 years ago.
This season, as a man very much in demand, he starred in two concerts at the BBC Proms, one in July and one in September.
Also on this concert programme, with Dinis Sousa conducting, are Grieg’s Incidental Music from Peer Gynt – offering another chance to see Kanneh-Mason doing what he does best – and, after the interval, Sibelius’ Symphony No. 3.
The first concert is in Middlesbrough Town Hall on Thursday, October 15, the second at The Glasshouse, Gateshead (Sage One), on Friday, October 16 and the third at Westmorland Hall, Kendal, on Saturday, October 17.
EVENT: SHUSH Fundraiser
Where: The Old Coal Yard, Ouseburn
When: October 17
Bookings and info: ticketsource.com
A new theatre show imagining a world where women and girls are no longer silenced is the focus of this fundraising celebration at Newcastle’s Old Coal Yard.
SHUSH is being developed by artists and activists Amy Golding, former founding artistic director of the award-winning theatre makers, Curious Monkey, and Lindsay Rodden, alongside an international team and community cast aged eight to 80.
The event will help raise match funding for Arts Council applications to take the show on a UK tour. Family games, raffles and bingo disco kick things off at 2pm, before evening performances from the likes of Ladies of Midnight Blue, JL and the Lateral Flow and DJane Dusty Discs.
Pay What You Feel tickets are available.
CLASSICAL: Orchestra North East
Where: Newcastle Cathedral
When: Saturday, October 24 (7pm)
Bookings and info: orchestranortheast.org.uk
An attractive programme will see the big orchestra celebrate 40 years of music-making across the region.
It was in 1986, having become a charity, that it made its debut as an independent entity with a concert at Durham Cathedral.
Originally known as Durham Sinfonia, it changed names to more accurately reflect its stature and regional footprint.
While amateur in the strictest sense, it hires professional conductors and soloists, and many of its players work professionally in music.
Conductor Thomas Blunt noted appreciatively: “They play out of their skins, with a commitment and passion that is truly outstanding.”
James Burton will conduct a programme which opens with George Butterworth’s A Shropshire Lad, inspired by the poems of A. E. Housman.
Then young piano prodigy Khrystyna Mykhailichenko will perform Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini.
Born in Ukraine, Khrystyna moved to Corbridge with her family shortly after Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022 and went on to study at the Royal Academy of Music.
Ian Roberts, cathedral director of music, will put the organ through its paces in Symphony No. 3 – The Organ Symphony by Saint-Saëns.
THEATRE: Animal Farm
Where: Alnwick Playhouse
When: Wednesday, October 21, 7pm
Bookings and info: alnwickplayhouse.co.uk
George Orwell’s famous allegorical critique of Stalinism was published in August 1945.
It’s a populous novel, featuring all manner of farmyard animals plus the humans they overthrow in a coup led by pigs Napoleon and Snowball.
Not, then, obvious material, you might think, for a one-man show.
But 50 years after the novel’s publication, theatre-maker Guy Masterson – emboldened, no doubt, by the success of his solo Under Milk Wood the previous year – premiered his stage version of Animal Farm at Edinburgh’s Traverse Theatre, playing all the parts himself.
To mark the 80th anniversary of publication, and 30 years since that 1995 Edinburgh debut, the show hit the road again last year… and it’s still touring, Masterson directing this time and with Sam Blythe multi-tasking to bring all the characters to life on stage.
The show has been performed (and enthusiastically reviewed) around the world and has always seemed relevant.
The story, suggests Masterson’s Theatre Tours International, is “Orwell’s prescient warning that politicians through the ages, and of all creeds and colours, will often let power corrupt them... and sometimes corrupt them absolutely.”
COMEDY: Rachel Fairburn - Vexy Beast
Where: The Stand Newcastle
When: October 19
Bookings and info: thestand.co.uk
You might recognise Rachel Fairburn from Live at the Apollo or Richard Osman’s House of Games, or perhaps as one half of the hugely popular true crime podcast All Killa No Filla with Kiri Pritchard-McLean.
In her latest show, Vexy Beast, the Manchester comic introduces a collection of characters including hair salon owner Leanne, her council-connected arch-rival Julie Noone, a suspiciously frequently widowed Nana Cheryl and Dean, a self-defence instructor who thinks women should smile more.
Expect sharp observations and scenes which might remind you of people you'd rather avoid.
CLASSICAL: William Shield Festival
Where: Lit & Phil, Newcastle
When: October 16, 17 (and beyond)
Bookings and info: litandphil.org.uk
Who was born in Swalwell in 1748, apprenticed to a South Shields shipbuilder after being orphaned and became Master of the King’s Musick in 1817?
It’s a good quiz question although the cat’s out of the bag here.
William Shield also became principal violinist at the Royal Opera House and is buried in Westminster Abbey.
Efforts to keep his North East roots in the public eye are spearheaded by Community Music Whickham & Swalwell.
The charity’s 10th William Shield Festival, featuring talks and concerts, begins on Friday (1pm) with Love, Lullabies and Longing in the Days of William Shield, with tenor Austin Gunn and pianist John Treherne.
A 7pm concert, featuring a programme assembled by composer and academic Bennett Hogg and performed previously at the Morpeth Gathering, will feature music of the period.
The programme continues through Saturday and into next month when Rocket Opera performs Shield’s rarely staged comic opera, The Flitch of Bacon, at St Mary’s Church, Whitley Bay (November 20, 7.30pm) and Swalwell Community Centre (November 21, 7.30pm).
The title alludes to the old custom of awarding a flitch (or side) of bacon to couples who could swear to not having regretted their marriage for a year and a day.
TALK: Dominic Cummings
Where: Curtis Auditorium, Newcastle University
When: Tuesday, October 20, 5.30pm
Bookings and info: ncl.ac.uk
What has Dominic Cummings been up to?
Flash back a few years and he was always in the news, supposedly the power behind the throne when Boris Johnson was in 10 Downing Street and wrestling with Brexit and the COVID-19 pandemic.
Cummings, from County Durham, had successfully campaigned against a North East Regional Assembly and then for Brexit.
But a much-publicised trip to Barnard Castle during lockdown preceded his resignation as Johnson’s chief adviser in November 2020 – only for him to return in 2021 with a devastating assessment of the Government’s handling of the pandemic.
His lecture as part of Newcastle University’s INSIGHTS series is titled What’s gone wrong with British politics and what to do?
It comes days after Prof Sir Chris Whitty, former chief medical officer and another blast from our Covid past, is due to give the keynote address at an NCL in Action event, A Picture of Health, at The Catalyst, 3 Science Square.
That event on October 16 is sold out but other notable figures are due on campus as part of the university’s autumn-winter season of public talks, concerts and events.
STILL SHOWING
Theatre: Our Friends in the North, Newcastle Theatre Royal, Oct 15-24
Comedy: Rosie Holt - The Illegal Aliens Have Landed, Northern Stage, Newcastle, Oct 17
Exhibition: Under Development, Newcastle Contemporary Art, High Bridge Works, Oct 17-Nov 29
Audio: Radiophonicx presents… Unheard-of Journeys, Cobalt Studios, Ouseburn, Oct 17
Theatre: It’s a Wonderful Us, Northern Stage, Newcastle (Oct 17); Queen’s Hall, Hexham (Nov 12); and Washington Arts Centre (Nov 19)
Screening: Music Video Preservation Society, Tyneside Cinema, Oct 16
Theatre: World’s On Fire, ARC, Stockton, Oct 15 (1pm), 16 and 17 (7pm)
Theatre: Dom Joly: Trigger Happy TV, Alnwick Playhouse, Oct 16
Talks: Vanbrugh 300, Seaton Delaval Hall, Oct 15
Exhibition: Impressions of Light, Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle, until Mar 14, 2027 Read more
Exhibition: Hommage A Gaia, RePUBlic Gallery, Blyth, until Oct 24
Comedy: Susan Calman - Tall Tales, 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
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
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
Music: The Script, Utilita Arena Newcastle, Nov 5
Music: BBC Introducing, The Fire Station, Sunderland, Nov 6
Film: Withnail and Wine, Gosforth Civic Theatre, Nov 12
Comedy: Larry Dean - Hellbent, Tyne Theatre and Opera House, Newcastle, Nov 13
Theatre: Legally Blonde the Musical, Sunderland Empire, Dec 1-5
Music: Shed Seven, Stockton Globe, Dec 3
2027
Theatre: The Rise and Fall of Little Voice, Newcastle Theatre Royal, Feb 3-6
Music: Beans on Toast plus guests, Gosforth Civic Theatre, Feb 8
Music: The Rock Orchestra by Candlelight, Sunderland Empire, Feb 28
Music: Hear’Say & Liberty X, Utilita Arena Newcastle, May 4
Music: Richard Thompson, Sage One, The Glasshouse, May 5
Theatre: The Most Famous Tree in the World, Live Theatre, Newcastle, May 29
Music: Elkie Brooks - The Long Farewell Tour, Stockton Globe (Jun 24) and Newcastle o2 City Hall (Nov 28)
🎄 FESTIVE FORECAST 🎄
Market: The Luna Night Market, Middlesbrough Town Hall, Dec 5, 5pm
Event: Children’s Lantern Parade, Durham Market Place, Dec 6
Family Theatre: The Snow Globe, Queen’s Hall, Hexham, Dec 5-31
Family: Big Family Festival Gig 2026, Northern Rock Foundation Hall, The Glasshouse, Dec 12-13
Music: Christmas at the Glasshouse with Matt Baker, Sage One, The Glasshouse, Dec 17
Music: Slady, The Cluny, Ouseburn, Dec 11
Screen/Music: The Snowman in Concert with Ever Ready Band, The Fire Station, Sunderland, Dec 20
Event: Christmas Tree Festival, St Andrew’s Church, Corbridge, Northumberland, Dec 4-8
Comedy: Adam Riches IS Sean Bean IN ‘How the Bean Saved Christmas’, The Stand Newcastle, Dec 14
Theatre: That’ll be Christmas, Darlington Hippodrome, Dec 2
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 a pair of tickets to see Hannah Peel & Beibei Wang: The Endless Dance at 8pm, Sage Two, The Glasshouse on October 20.
The performance sees Northern Irish composer and producer Hannah Peel joining forces with Chinese percussionist Beibei Wang for a genre-crossing musical collaboration inspired by the changing seasons.
The Endless Dance is their first album together and takes its cue from the 24 solar terms of the Chinese calendar, combining synthesisers and prepared piano with traditional and unconventional percussion.
The pair met while working on Manchester Collective’s NEON album in 2023, before discovering a shared appetite for improvisation during a London performance.
HOW TO ENTER:
To be in with a chance of winning, simply email MePlease@culturednortheast.co.uk using the subject line: ‘I want to dance endlessly’ by 5pm on Friday, October 16.
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 - 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.