Curated Culture 20.01.26
Our regular round-up of recommendations from North East stages and cultural venues
Welcome to this week’s collection of arts and culture happenings across the North East, which have been carefully selected for your attention.
If this is your first encounter with Curated Culture, or you’re dipping back in after a while, this is how the Tuesday newsletter usually breaks down:
🗓️ Top Picks – featured listings from the next couple of weeks
📌 Still Showing – things we’ve shouted about before that haven’t yet passed
📅 Now Booking – notable dates further ahead you may want to nail down
🎁 Subscriber Prize Draw – this week, a pair of tickets to see Bridget Christie’s new tour, Jacket Potato Pizza at Tyne Theatre and Opera House, Newcastle, on March 14
All the details are below. No rush though. Take your time.
Thanks as ever for your scrolls, clicks, shares and virtual backslaps. They’re all very appreciated
Sam (Wonfor) & Dave (Whetstone)
Professionally preoccupied with North East culture
MUSIC: Independent Venue Week (IVW)
Where: 29 venues across the North East
When: January 26 to from February 1
Bookings and info: independentvenueweek.com
A week which shines a spotlight on the places that keep live music and grassroots culture alive returns for 2026. Across seven days, 29 North East venues are taking part in the UK-wide celebration of independent spaces and the people who run them.
From first gigs to sold-out hometown shows, these rooms play a vital role in nurturing artists, audiences and local scenes:
Newcastle and Gateshead: Anarchy Brew Co, Boiler Shop, Digital, Gosforth Civic Theatre, Newgate Social, PILGRIM, The Central Bar, The Cluny The Cumberland Arms, The Globe, The Lubber Fiend, Think Tank, ZEROX
North Tyneside: ALTR (formerly Alfie & Fin’s), RED, The Engine Room, Three Tanners Bank
Berwick upon Tweed: Repas7, The Barrels
Sunderland: Independent, The Bunker CIC
County Durham: The White Room Music Cafe (Stanley),
Stockton: KU Stockton, NE Volume Music Bar, The Georgian Theatre, The Waiting Room
Darlington: The Forum Music Studios
Hartlepool: The Studio, Vixen Bar
Of course this official IVW list is just a snapshot. There are lots more independent venues across the region doing vital work year-round, often under the radar. If you can, seek them out, buy a ticket, have a drink, tell a friend - and be part of the solution to keep them keeping on.
FESTIVAL: Brundibár Arts Festival
Where: Newcastle, various venues
When: January 31 to February 8
Bookings and info: brundibarartsfestival.com
This is the 10th anniversary edition of a festival established as the first in the UK dedicated to the music and arts of the Holocaust.
The brainchild of violinist Alexandra Raikhlina, the name recalls Brundibár (‘bumblebee’), an opera by Czech composer Hans Krása that was first performed by children in Theresienstadt concentration camp in 1943.
As Alexandra, artistic director, explains, the festival aims to document the “astonishing achievements of artists under adversity” and to keep their stories alive (Krása was murdered in Auschwitz).
The opening concert, dedicated to North East Brundibár supporter Alan Share, features the music of composers who were interned in Theresienstadt and didn’t survive the war, the likes of Pavel Haas and Zikmund Schul.
It takes place in St James’s United Reformed Church, Northumberland Road, on January 31 at 7.30pm.
Other concerts take place at the Lit & Phil, Brunswick Street Methodist Church, All Saints’ Church, Gosforth, and the King’s Hall, Newcastle University.
Check the website for the full programme which includes a screening at the Tyneside Cinema (February 4, 7pm) of the moving documentary The Last Musician of Auschwitz, which tells of the musicians who performed classical music in the death camp.
SCREEN: Doppelganger
Where: BBC Three and BBC iPlayer
When: February 1, 9pm
Bookings and info: bbc.co.uk
A couple of months ago, we told you all about a new short film, which had been made in the North East as part of the BBC’s Long Story Short series.
Written by award-winning Newcastle playwright, Alison (making her first foray into screenwriting) and produced by Gateshead production company, Candle and Bell, Doppelgänger now has a transmission date.
The 15-minute film, which was filmed on location in Heaton and Pelaw, explores the life-changing fallout of a meeting between 10-year-old Josie Johns and her exact double (another 10-year-old girl called Josie).
Its stars Sarah Balfour as both Josies alongside Jack Robertson (currently in the West End as one of the leads in Gerry and Sewell), Adam Davison and Raul Kohli.
MUSIC: Le Vent Du Nord
Where: Alnwick Playhouse
When: Sunday, January 25
Bookings and info: alnwickplayhouse.co.uk
A progressive folk group established in Quebec in 2002, Le Vent Du Nord (The North Wind in English) has notched up loads of awards and performed more than 2,500 concerts across four continents.
The five members – there have been some comings and goings over the years but founders Nicolas Boulerice and Olivier Demers remain – perform the music of Quebec which is heavily influenced by Celtic sounds associated with the likes of Ireland and Brittany.
They have a huge repertoire, comprising traditional numbers and original compositions, and produce a sound that has been described as hard-driving and soulful.
Their on stage performances have been called intense, joyful and dynamic.
Currently on a UK tour, they travel to Alnwick from Glasgow to perform their only North East gig before heading south.
Tickets are being snapped up fast for this one with availability limited.
COMEDY: Chris Ramsey - Here Man (Work in progress)
Where: Queen’s Hall, Hexham and The Fire Station, Sunderland
When: January 24 and 27, respectively
Bookings and info: queenshall.co.uk and thefirestation.org.uk
The wider population probably know South Shields’ Chris Ramsey more as a record breaking podcaster. Or a Strictly / Taskmaster contestant. Or BBC prime time TV presenter. Or husband of his partner in podcasting, Rosie.
But stand up is where it all started for the now 39-year-old and he is returning to the singular mic for a big old UK tour, Here Man, which kicks off next month.
It’s coming to Stockton Globe on Feb 26 and 27 and Newcastle 02 City Hall from Apr 17 to 19… BUT. There are a couple of North East work-in-progress gigs left before the tour proper gets underway.
A pretty good chance to see what will be a pretty polished show by this point in the WIP cycle, in a smaller venue.
THEATRE: Horrible Histories
Where: Darlington Hippodrome
When: January 23 and 24:
Bookings and info: darlingtonhippodrome.co.uk
History gets noisy this week as Horrible Histories – The Concert Live (and Dead!) makes its world premiere at Darlington Hippodrome.
There’s a nice bit of symmetry here too: Alongside the fact that the whole Horrible Histories universe was created by best-selling Sunderland-born and County Durham-dwelling author, Terry Deary, Darlington is where the very first stage adaptation of his books appeared 20 years ago.
This is the first time the TV show’s much-loved songs and familiar faces have toured together, with a live band led by original composer Richie Webb. Expect the hits (yes, The Monarchs’ Song), surprise character appearances, and plenty of irreverent chaos as historical heavyweights jostle for attention.
Billed as fast, funny and unapologetically silly, but cleverly put together, it sounds like an excellent decision for families, fans of the show, and anyone who likes their history served loud and slightly unhinged. Age recommendation 5 to 105.
Meanwhile if you can’t make it to Darlington for the premiere run, the show will be back in the region at Sunderland Empire on April 17 and 18.
MUSIC: John Bramwell (I Am Kloot)
Where: Gosforth Civic Theatre, Newcastle
When: January 31
Bookings and info: gosforthcivictheatre.co.uk
Former I Am Kloot frontman John Bramwell brings his solo show back to the North East next week for a must-see gig.
It might be more than a decade since the acclaimed singer songwriter signed off with his former band but the voice behind 2010’s Mercury Prize nominated The Sky At Night continues to broaden his creative horizons as a wise-cracking troubadour with talent to burn.
If I Am Kloot’s (featuring Morpeth’s Pete Jobson on bass) brooding alt rock provided Bramwell with a vehicle for often melancholic contemplation then his solo career is both sonically and lyrically a welcome diversion.
With 2024’s critically acclaimed The Light Fantastic - which will be at the core of this tour - strings and four-part harmonies captured a wildly optimistic mood. “They are the most uplifting songs of my career,” admitted Bramwell. “It’s been great to find the joy of making music once again.”
SCREEN: R.E.M. x Buster Keaton’s Sherlock Jr
Where: The Tyneside Cinema
When: February 5
Bookings and info: tynesidecinema.co.uk
Silent cinema meets alt-rock in a left-field reworking of Sherlock Jr., Buster Keaton’s brilliant 1924 comedy.
Keaton - who reportedly broke his neck during one of the many daring stunts in the film - plays a film projectionist who dreams of detective glory, only to find himself framed for a crime he didn’t commit, navigating a world that slips constantly between fantasy and reality.
This screening pairs the film with music from R.E.M.’s Monster and New Adventures in Hi-Fi, giving the slapstick and stunts a very different energy.
The event also includes a screening of The Balloonatic (1923), accompanied by a newly composed soundtrack from Brazilian electronic artist Amon Tobin
TALK: Playing Like A Girl – A History of Women’s Football
Where: Lit & Phil, Newcastle
When: Wednesday, January 28, 6pm
Bookings and info: litandphil.org.uk
Fiona Skillen is professor of history at Glasgow Caledonian University but she knows a thing or two about women kicking a ball around.
She’s a leading expert on the history of women’s sport, as she will no doubt demonstrate in this talk hosted with the Tyneside branch of the Historical Association.
Prof Skillen’s PhD research, focusing on women who wanted to participate in sport between the two world wars, was later developed to become a book, Women, Sport and Modernity in Interwar Britain.
She is a past chair of the British Society of Sport History.
Women’s football gets an unprecedented amount of media attention nowadays but the road to widespread acceptability has been a rocky one, exemplified by the English Football Association banning clubs from allowing women’s teams to use their grounds in 1921 and declaring that football was unsuitable for women.
However, early records provide evidence of women in Scotland playing football as far back as 1628.
CONCERT: Piano Greats - Angela Hewitt
Where: The Glasshouse, Gateshead
When: Sunday, February 1, 3pm
Bookings and info: theglasshouseicm.org
The greatness in Angela Hewitt’s case is not disputed, especially when it comes to Bach.
She’s one of his most ardent servants and interpreters, having embarked a few years ago on a Bach ‘odyssey’, performing the composer’s complete keyboard works in a succession of concerts around the world.
Only this month sees the release, on the Hyperion label, of a 27-CD box set called Angela Hewitt – The Bach Recordings (replacing an earlier, less complete set that sold out years ago) which spans much of her professional career.
The “finest exponent of Bach’s keyboard music”, according to Gramophone magazine, she returns to this venue with a programme comprising six pieces, opening with his Toccata in D major and concluding with his Prelude and Fugue in A minor.
Born in Ottawa but based in London, Angela has dedicated her life to the piano and largely to Bach, the German composer who lived from 1685 to 1750.
Further concerts in the Piano Greats series at The Glasshouse come up on March 15 (Dame Imogen Cooper with mezzo-soprano Sarah Connolly) and April 12 (Nicholas McCarthy, a Royal College of Music graduate born without a right hand).
MUSIC: Frankie Archer // ATFK (Vinyl Launch)
Where: Pop Recs, Sunderland
When: January 31
Bookings and info: poprecs.co.uk
A strong double header lands at Pop Recs on the last day of the month, bringing together two acts pushing folk, electronics and live performance in exciting directions.
ATFK celebrate the vinyl release of Repeat For Joy - the second release from this North East duo comprising Amy Thatcher and Francesca Knowles.
Working with Field Music’s David and Peter Brewis in Sunderland, the record is described as moving further into electronic and folktronic territory, with percussion-led structures, synth textures and a broader sonic palette.
Sharing the bill is Frankie Archer, appearing in for the first time with the aforementioned Amy and Francesca - debuting a new live configuration for a 'bold mash of alt-trad shows her deep love of electronic music and her Northumbrian roots’.
THEATRE: Grease
Where: Gala Theatre, Durham
When: January 27 to 31
Bookings and info: galadurham.co.uk
This is the annual Gala Theatre production by Durham University Light Opera Group (DULOG) so you can rest assured they’ll pull out all the stops.
Three years ago we were blown away by the DULOG production of Hello Dolly at this venue.
The performers were young – of course, they’re students – but imbued with a confidence to match their burgeoning talent they turned in a performance that was professional in all but name.
DULOG, one of the biggest of Durham Uni’s many theatre groups, was founded in 1950 so it recently celebrated its 75th anniversary.
It would have been celebrating its 21st anniversary when Grease was premiered in Chicago in 1971. The famous film, starring John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John, came along seven years later.
Set in the summer of 1958, the story revolves around the love affair of greaser Danny Zuko and strait-laced Aussie Sandy Olsson.
The DULOG show is likely to be high on energy, given that it features musical hits including Greased Lightnin’, Hopelessly Devoted to You, You’re The One That I Want and Summer Nights.
Something to brighten these winter nights, surely?
STILL SHOWING
Theatre: The Rocky Horror Show, Sunderland Empire, until Jan 24
Theatre: The Mirror Crack’d, People’s Theatre, Newcastle, until Jan 24
Exhibition: Indivisible, Vane, Gateshead NE8 2AP, until Jan 24
Screen: The Voice of Hind Rajab, Tyneside Cinema, Newcastle, until Jan 22
Music: Martyn Joseph, Gosforth Civic Theatre, Jan 22
Music: Paul Jones and Dave Kelly, The Witham, Barnard Castle, Jan 24
Classical: ECHO Rising Stars Festival, The Glasshouse, Gateshead, Jan 24, 10am to 7.15pm
Ballet: Varna International Ballet, Darlington Hippodrome, Jan 25-27
Theatre: Weird, Newcastle Theatre Royal, Jan 28, 30 and 31
Music: Joanne Shaw Taylor, The Fire Station, Sunderland, Jan 29
Event: Day Fever, Boiler Shop Newcastle, Jan 31
Music: Elvana: Elvis Fronted Nirvana, Newcastle 02 City Hall, Jan 31
Exhibition: Between Work and Play, Globe Gallery, 97 Howard Street, North Shields, until Feb 14
Exhibition Tours: The Light of Days Past, Granary Gallery, Berwick, Feb 7
Comedy: Sara Pascoe - I Am A Strange Gloop, Tyne Theatre and Opera House, Newcastle; Gala Theatre Durham, Feb 5 and Mar 27, respectively
Event: Uncanny - Fear of the Dark, Darlington Hippodrome, Feb 8
Theatre: Matilda The Musical, Sunderland Empire, Feb 11-28
Music: The Friday Night Club With The Unthanks, Sage Two, The Glasshouse, Feb 13
Event: Sunday for Sammy, Utilita Arena Newcastle, Feb 15
Comedy: Chris Ramsey - Here Man, Stockton Globe and Newcastle 02 City Hall, Feb 26-27 and April 17-19, respectively
Theatre: The Complete Works of Jane Austen, Abridged, Gosforth Civic Theatre, Newcastle, Mar 5
Theatre: Hidden Biscuit, Queen’s Hall Hexham and Live Theatre, Newcastle, Mar 20 and Apr 2, respectively
Screen: Torvill and Dean - The Last Dance, streaming on ITVX,
Exhibition: Going Back Brockens, Sunderland Museum & Winter Gardens, until Jan 31 (10am to 5pm)
Exhibition: Desire Lines, MIMA, Middlesbrough, until Apr 12
Theatre: I, Daniel Blake, Northern Stage, Newcastle, Mar 20 to April 4
Theatre: Priscilla Queen of the Desert, Newcastle Theatre Royal, Apr 6-11
Theatre: Sunny Afternoon, Stockton Globe, April 14-18
Screen: Jools Holland’s New Orleans Jukebox, BBC iPlayer
Radio: Tom and Lauren Are Going OOT!, BBC Sounds
Exhibition: Miniature Worlds - Little Landscapes from Thomas Bewick to Beatrix Potter, Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle, until Feb 28, 2026. Read our report.
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
Exhibition: Joséphine: A Woman of Taste and Fashion, Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle, until March
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
Exhibition: Pippa Hale: Pet Project, Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle, until March 1
NOW BOOKING
Subscription: Fresh Season Ticket - Spring 2026 for Thursday nights at Cobalt Studios, Ouseburn, Jan 29 to Apr 2
Ballet: Little Red Riding Hood, Northern Stage, Newcastle, Feb 7
Music: Florence and the Machine, Utilita Arena Newcastle, Feb 11
Theatre: Mamma Mia, Newcastle Theatre Royal, Feb 11-28
Music: Fatboy Slim, Boiler Shop, Newcastle, Feb 12
Event: Bay Tales, Whitley Bay Playhouse, Feb 28, all day
Theatre: Our Little Hour, Alphabetti Theatre, Newcastle, Mar 5-7
Event: WOW North East - International Women’s Day Celebration, Middlesbrough Theatre, Mar 8
Comedy: Paul and Suki Improv Show, Tyne Theatre and Opera House, Mar 11
Theatre: Pygmalion, Bishop Auckland Town Hall, Mar 11
Theatre: Blood Brothers, Sunderland Empire, Mar 17-21
Music: Suzi Quatro, Sage One, The Glasshouse, Apr 8
Music: Holly Clarke, Cluny 2, Ouseburn, Newcastle, Apr 26
Theatre: Waitress, Sunderland Empire, May 4-9
Comedy: Kai Humphries - Kaibosh, The Stand Newcastle, May 18
Comedy: Rich Hall - Chin Music, The Fire Station, Sunderland, June 4
Books: Maggie O’Farrell celebrates new novel: Land, Northern Stage, Newcastle, June 9
Theatre: Barnum, Newcastle Theatre Royal, Aug 11-15
Event: The Archers Live at 75, Tyne Theatre and Opera House (Oct 6) and Stockton Globe (Oct 7)
Comedy/Music: Bill Bailey - Vaudevillean, Utilita Arena, Newcastle, Dec 5
Music: Jess Gillam Ensemble, Sage Two, The Glasshouse, Dec 10
2027
Theatre: Back to the Future The Musical, Sunderland Empire, Apr 13-May 8
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 to Bridget Christie: Jacket Potato Pizza at the Tyne Theatre and Opera House, Newcastle on March 14.
The tour kicked off last week and by all accounts spirals through a loose collection of fixations - a kidney stone, a stray cat, an eye-themed fetish being three - undoubtedly delivered with Christie’s sharp, delightful and unpredictable approach to stand-up.
Perhaps best known for Channel 4 series, The Change, which she wrote and starred in as well as appearances on Taskmaster and Off Menu, this looks set to be a lovely night.
HOW TO ENTER:
To be in with a chance of winning, simply email MePlease@culturednortheast.co.uk using the subject line: Potato Pizza? Yes Please! by noon, (12pm) on Sunday, January 25, 2026.
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.