Curated Culture 18.11.25
Our weekly recommendations round up from North East stages and cultural venues
Welcome to this week’s Curated Culture – your weekly shortcut to some of the best stuff you can see, hear and do around the North East.
We’ve handpicked and spotlit a selection what’s on now, what’s about to open and what’s coming down the track, so your next cultural calendar delight is just a scroll away.*
If you’ve just joined us, here’s the lay of the land:
🗓️ Top Picks - some standout listings for the next fortnight
📌 Still Showing – highlights from previous editions still going strong
📅 Now Booking – future dates worth locking in early
🎁 Subscriber Prize Draw – this week, win four tickets to The Fire Station’s New Year’s Eve Bash, featuring Smoove & Turrell.
*If you’re wondering about the distinct lack of Christmas shows despite the world being draped in tinsel, bauble-dipped trees and fairy lights… there will be a festive-filled bonus what’s on newsletter jingle-belling its way into your inbox before you know it.
Thanks for reading, spreading the word and keeping culture in your calendar.
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
MUSIC: Howard Jones - Dream Into Action
Where: Sage One, The Glasshouse
When: November 19
Bookings and info: theglasshouseicm.org
Synth-pop innovator and 80s icon Howard Jones brings four decades of forward-thinking tunes and tinklings to Tyneside this week.
Bursting onto the scene in 1983 with New Song, Jones went on to release platinum albums Human’s Lib and Dream Into Action, producing enduring hits including What Is Love?, Things Can Only Get Better and No One Is to Blame.
With more than 10 million albums sold worldwide, his recent work, including 2022’s Dialogue, continues to blend optimism and melody. And eighties nostalgia, obviously.
THEATRE: Bleak Expectations
Where: People’s Theatre, Newcastle
When: November 18-22
Bookings and info: peoplestheatre.co.uk
Charles Dickens satirised many aspects of 19th Century Britain to great comic effect and here the tables are turned, with the novelist’s famous works mixed up and sent up.
Bleak Expectations, written by Welsh comedy writer, actor and director Mark Evans, was a popular series on BBC Radio 4 from 2007 to 2012.
Evans subsequently turned it into a novel and then this play which had a run in the West End in 2023.
Now the accomplished amateurs of the People’s Theatre are having a go, billing it as the story Dickens might have written if he’d drunk too much gin!
We are invited to join Sir Philip Bin as he relates the tale of his youth, how as young ‘Pip’ Bin he was packed off to boarding school after his father was killed by penguins while on imperial service and then went to London to seek his fortune.
“My life,” he laments, “has been an endless procession of trials, setbacks and conveniently spaced cliffhanger endings.”
BOOKS: Books on Tyne
Where: Newcastle City Library and Lit & Phil
When: November 22-29
Bookings and info: booksontyne.co.uk
Newcastle’s old prison, the World Cup, the lost tree of Sycamore Gap and lots of walking… and that’s only part of the annual books festival jointly produced by the Lit & Phil and Newcastle City Library.
Some events might be sold out already but it’s worth browsing the programme split between these libraries ancient and modern, the former celebrating its bicentenary this year.
The prison and the World Cup are the preserve of the City Library which will host the authors of Newcastle Prison: A History 1828 – 1925 (Patrick Low, Shane McCorristine, Helen Rutherford and Clare Sandford-Couch) and The Power and the Glory: A New History of the World Cup (Jonathan Wilson).
The Lit & Phil programme errs (you might think) on the side of the energetic, with Jake Morris-Campbell and Kerri Andrews due to discuss books in which walking plays a significant part.
Jake, from South Shields, chronicles a pilgrimage from Holy Island to Durham Cathedral, a “journey into the soul of Northumbria” taking in the present and the past, in his book Between the Salt and the Ash.
Meanwhile Kerri, who lives in Peebles in the Scottish Borders, writes “on walking, motherhood and freedom” in her inspiring and informative new book, Pathfinding.
THEATRE: Top Hat
Where: Sunderland Empire
When: Until November 22
Bookings and info: atgtickets.com
Irving Berlin’s timeless songs - including Cheek to Cheek, Let’s Face the Music and Dance, Top Hat, White Tie and Tails and Puttin’ on the Ritz - take centre stage as Top Hat makes its Wearside stop on a new UK tour.
Based on the 1935 Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers film, the musical follows Broadway star Jerry Travers (Phillip Attmore) as he arrives in London to headline a new show. A late-night tap routine in his hotel room inadvertently wakes model Dale Tremont (Amara Okereke), sparking a romantic pursuit that becomes tangled in mistaken identities and crossed wires.
First staged in the West End in 2013, where it won the Olivier Award for Best New Musical, this revival is directed and choreographed by Kathleen Marshall, whose acclaimed Anything Goes dazzled London audiences in recent years. Expect elegant dance numbers, screwball comedy and a sweep of old Hollywood glamour.
DANCE: Just Enough Madness
Where: Dance City, Newcastle
When: Saturday, November 22, 7.30pm
Bookings and info: dancecity.co.uk
One of the most memorable spectacles this weekend might be Payal Ramdanchani performing the UK premiere of her new dance theatre piece, Just Enough Madness.
Payal, based in Newcastle, is one of this country’s few representatives of the Kuchipudi dance tradition. She began training in Delhi at the age of four and now strives to broaden the UK audience for this particular form of Indian classical dance.
The new work, exploring issues around motherhood, miscarriage and mental health, has universal themes.
“Kuchipudi is often seen only as a classical tradition but for me it is also a language to express what is unspoken,” Payal explains.
“In Just Enough Madness I use the form to explore the silences around motherhood – what it means to become, or to un-become, a mother.
“I hope audiences glimpse something of their own journeys in the work.”
The new piece, with live music and a poetic voiceover, was commissioned by Gateshead-based GemArts and funded by Arts Council England with National Lottery grants.
This performance in Newcastle will be followed next year by others at Bradford Arts Centre (March 26) and The Lowry, Salford (March 31).
BOOKS: Hexham Book Festival events
Where: Queen’s Hall Arts Centre
When: November 20, from 6pm
Bookings and info: hexhambookfestival.co.uk
The next main Hexham Book Festival is scheduled for spring 2026 but it leaps into life on Thursday with two very different events on the same night.
First, at 6pm, comes a treat for crime fiction lovers as Ann Cleeves and Steph McGovern chat on stage at the Queen’s Hall.
They might be described as the grande dame of North East crime fiction and its Jenny-come-lately, since Ann has had umpteen novels published in a 40-year career while Steph, best known for her TV presenting roles, saw her first published this summer.
That was her TV-inspired Deadline which has been selling well. No doubt she’ll have plenty to say about that while Ann will be full of her new one, The Killing Stones, set in the Orkney Islands.
After that, at 7.45pm, historian and educator Sir Anthony Seldon will take to the stage to talk to Jacqui Hodgson about his 2024 book Truss at 10 – How Not to be Prime Minister.
The event, postponed from the spring, puts Liz Truss’s brief and disastrous premiership under the spotlight. Seldon has given previous prime ministers the same treatment, having also written Brown at 10, Cameron at 10, May at 10 and Johnson at 10.
Sunak at 10 is scheduled for publication in August 2026 and we must assume that Starmer at 10 is taking shape, if not in actual prose then in the author’s mind.
EVENT: Ouseburn Open Studios
Where: Various venues across the Ouseburn, Newcastle
When: November 29 and 30
Bookings and info: ouseburnopenstudios.org
Ouseburn Open Studios returns to the Ouseburn Valley in Newcastle at the end of the month - perfect for anyone who vowed to get their Christmas shopping started before the the first advent calendar door was open… but is cutting it fine!
Now in its 30th year, the event offers a gorgeous glimpse into the creative spaces of artists across the city’s cultural quarter.
Among them are the residents of 36 Lime Street Studios - Newcastle’s oldest artist studios and home to some of the North East’s most talented painters, printmakers, jewellers, ceramicists, musicians and designers.
Visitors can explore five floors of the Grade II listed building, chat to artists, watch live demonstrations, and browse or buy original work - all just in time for Christmas.
Other venues who will be welcoming us in are B.Box Studios, Biscuit Factory Studios, Biscuit Tin Studios, Jim Edwards Studio, Kelly Morgan Studio, Mushroom Works, Northern Print and Wildflower Floral Studio.
Tasty food, drink and general merriment is always on the menu too - and there’s also the Ouseburn’s burgeoning independent shopping scene to get amongst too. Too many wins to count!
If a trip to the Ouseburn gets you in the shopping mood, the Winter Warmer event at BALTIC on November 29 is also worth a visit, promising work from more than 50 designers at the Makers Market.
THEATRE: On Sycamore Gap
Where: Queen’s Hall, Hexham, Washington Arts Centre, Lit and Phil
When: November 23, 27 and 28, respectively
Bookings and info: queenshall.co.uk, sunderlandculture.org.uk and litandphil.org.uk
Poet Kate Fox joins musicians Staithe (Bridie Jackson and Nick Pierce) for evenings which combine readings from her collection On Sycamore Gap with the duo’s stripped-back, atmospheric sound.
The work was written in the wake of the 2023 felling of the iconic tree on Hadrian’s Wall.
Kate’s poems consider the loss and its wider cultural meaning, while Staithe’s understated arrangements for voice, guitar, viola and electronics offer a quiet musical counterpoint.
EVENT: Yule Gaderung
Where: Ad Gefrin, Wooler Northumberland
When: November 28-30
Bookings and info: adgefrin.co.uk
A three-day midwinter celebration of Northumberland’s land, people, and traditions, Yule Gaderung returns to Wooler at the end of the month in ramped up fashion.
The weekend opens with a candle-lit community procession, centred around a newly built siix-metre straw Yule goat, created with input from local makers and volunteers.
A free outdoor market follows across Saturday and Sunday, with North East producers, craft demonstrations and cookery sessions led by Hairy Biker Si King - who also leads The King Cush Band, headlining the Saturday evening. Inside, the Great Hall will host storytelling, heritage crafts and a chance for visitors to explore the museum spaces without charge.
Live music runs throughout the programme, with Kathryn Tickell, Amy Thatcher and Heather Cartwright headlining the Sunday.
The weekend forms part of a wider push to revive and reinterpret historic Yule customs, spotlighting local food, makers and musicians while offering an alternative to more familiar festive fare. Sounds pretty smashing.
Tickets for Saturday and Sunday are free but should be booked.
THEATRE: Freedom Moving - Then & Now
Where: Gosforth Civic Theatre, Newcastle
When: November 28, 2pm and 7pm
Bookings and info: gosforthcivictheatre.co.uk
Gosforth Civic Theatre marks 80 years since the end of the Second World War with its most ambitious production yet – Freedom Moving – Then & Now. Part of Future Arts Centres’ nationwide project Our Freedom, the show joins 60 venues across the UK in a large-scale celebration of freedom, unity and inclusive pride.
The only UK arts venue founded and led by people with learning disabilities, GCT’s full-length production brings together more than 60 performers in six original pieces of theatre and dance, accompanied by live music from Kari McLeod and community choir Sing United.
Exploring what freedom means in modern Britain, the production reflects on history while imagining a more inclusive future. Fittingly, it takes place in the building originally constructed as a war memorial for local service members.
STILL SHOWING
Comedy: Glory Be It’s Gavin Webster, Tyne Theatre and Opera House, Newcastle, Nov 21
Screen: Jools Holland’s New Orleans Jukebox, BBC iPlayer
Exhibition: Tom Hume - Retrospective, Ushaw Historic House, Chapels & Garden, until January 18, 2026
Music: Sheelanagig - 20th Anniversary Tour, Gosforth Civic Theatre, Newcastle, November 20
Radio: Tom and Lauren Are Going OOT!, BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds
Exhibition: Lintukoto, NewBridge Gallery, Shieldfield Centre, Stoddart Street, Newcastle, until November 29
Bookings and info: thenewbridgeproject.com
Family: Disney on Ice - Find Your Hero, Utilita Arena Newcastle, Nov 19-23
Theatre: Big Ange, Live Theatre, Newcastle, until Nov 22. Read our review
Exhibition: Listening to the Voices of the Rivers, Newcastle Contemporary Art (NCA), 31-39 High Bridge, until Nov 22
Exhibition: Shipyard Faces and Intriguing Spaces, Old Low Light Heritage Centre, North Shields, until Dec 1
Theatre: Shore Lines from the Border Readers, various venues all over the North East until Dec 4
Exhibition: Miniature Worlds - Little Landscapes from Thomas Bewick to Beatrix Potter, Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle, until Feb 28, 2026
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
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
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: Henning Wehn - Acid Wehn, Tyne Theatre and Opera House, Nov 27
Music: The ELO Show, Sage One, The Glasshouse, Nov 30
Theatre: Kinky Boots, Sunderland Empire, Dec 2-6
Music: The Undertones/John Otway, Boiler Shop, Newcastle, Dec 4
Music: Nerina Pallot - All Roads Lead To, Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle, Dec 5-6
Music: Music Against Child Poverty 2, The Fire Station, Sunderland, Dec 7
Music: Madness, Utilita Arena Newcastle, Dec 9
Comedy: Laffs for Kids, Utilita Arena Newcast;e, Dec 14
Comedy/Music: Si King’s Proper Night Out, Live Theatre, Newcastle, Dec 16-17
Film: The Apartment, special NYE screening, Star and Shadow Cinema, Newcastle, Dec 31, 2pm
2026
Comedy: Glenn Moore - Please Sir, Glenn I Have Some Moore?, Gala Theatre Durham, Jan 29
Music: Florence and the Machine, Utilita Arena Newcastle, Feb 11
Event: Sunday for Sammy, Utilita Arena Newcastle, Feb 15
Music: Mogwai, Sage One, The Glasshouse, Gateshead, Feb 26
Comedy: Angela Barnes - Angst, Alnwick Playhouse, Feb 27
Theatre: TINA - The Tina Turner Musical, Newcastle Theatre Royal, Mar 3-14
Comedy: Keep Standing Up! Tyne Theatre and Opera House, Mar 8
Comedy: Matt Forde - Defying Calamity, The Fire Station, Sunderland, Mar 25
Theatre: Waitress, Sunderland Empire, May 4-9
Festival: In The Park, Exhibition Park Newcastle, July 8 (Lewis Capaldi) and 10 (Paul Weller)
Music: The Stone Roses, Primal Scream and Me - An Intimate Evening with Gary ‘Mani’ Mountfield, The Witham, Barnard Castle
Festival: Lindisfarne Festival, Beal Farm, Northumberland, Sept 3-5
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 four tickets for what sounds like a very special New Year’s Eve at The Fire Station in Sunderland.
Smoove & Turrell have signed on to close out the year with a night of funk, soul and good-time energy at the city centre venue. Joined by DJ Mojaxx, the duo will see audiences through to 2026 with a set full of rhythm, brass and unmistakable Northern swagger.
The evening includes a live stream of the city’s fireworks (and permission to pop out and catch them in person safe in the knowledge that you’ll be allowed back in!) before the band take over to ring in the new year in style.
HOW TO ENTER:
To be in with a chance of winning, simply email MePlease@culturednortheast.co.uk using the subject line: Well ya Beggarman by noon, (12pm) on Sunday, November 23, 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.