Hello and welcome to the last Curated Culture of October.
Halloween is almost upon us… but if you want something truly frightening, you should see the state of our diaries between now and Christmas.
It seems only fair that we make yours a bit busier via another batch of cultural recommendations for the coming fortnight, more options in STILL SHOWING and plenty to plan ahead for in our NOW BOOKING and FESTIVE FORECAST signposts.
This week’s prize draw should raise a few laughs, too. We’ve got a pair of tickets to see Dylan Moran, who brings his new stand-up show, Looking for Trouble, to Newcastle’s Tyne Theatre and Opera House on November 4.
You’ll find the entry details at the bottom of the newsletter.
Thanks for reading and hope your weekend is exactly as scary as you want it to be.
Sam (Wonfor) and Dave (Whetstone)
Professionally preoccupied with North East culture
THEATRE: Billy Elliot the Musical
Where: Sunderland Empire
When: November 4-28
Bookings and info: atgtickets.com
Billy Elliot is on its way home. A North East story, which has been seen by more than 12 million theatregoers worldwide, returns to the region as a new tour of the award-winning musical opens at Sunderland Empire.
Based on the hit film starring Jamie Bell and Julie Walters, the show follows a County Durham boy who discovers a passion for ballet against the backdrop of the 1984–85 miners’ strike.
With music by Elton John and book and lyrics by Newcastle-born Lee Hall, the production stars Lesley Joseph, Annette McLaughlin and Deka Walmsley, alongside three young performers from Sunderland and Durham who share the role of Billy’s friend Debbie.
The musical last visited Sunderland in 2016, when it sold out.
DANCE: Cinderella
Where: Newcastle Theatre Royal
When: Wed, October 28 to Sat, Oct 31
Bookings and info: theatreroyal.co.uk
Northern Ballet are back with a slightly out-of-season seasonal favourite – and danced, you will notice from the Theatre Royal website, to “Prokofiev’s classic music played live”.
Cost-cutting measures a few years ago saw the Leeds-based company doing a Matthew Bourne (not that it does him any harm) and performing to recorded music.
Leaflets from the Musicians’ Union were distributed outside the theatre, arguing against the decision on behalf of members and supported, it must be said, by many ballet lovers.
Agreement has now been reached and the musicians will be back in the pit for the Newcastle run.
It was originally choreographed back in 2009 for the Milwaukee Ballet by its artist director Michael Pink, who worked for Northern Ballet as associate artistic director alongside the late Michael Gable in the 1990s.
An appreciative recent review of this production, which gets six performances here including Thursday and Saturday matinees, called it very traditional, family-friendly and perfect escapism.
Matthew Bourne’s version, incidentally, set during the wartime London Blitz, will be with us in the spring (April 20 to May 1).
DANCE: Hansel & Gretel and the Witch
Where: Northern Stage, Newcastle
When: Thurs, Oct 29 to Sun, Nov 1
Bookings and info: northernstage.co.uk
After delighting audiences over several years with a successful fairytale trilogy, Newcastle-based balletLORENT is back with a follow-up to Rapunzel, Rumpelstiltskin and Snow White.
Liv Lorent’s company has fashioned a niche for itself with its distinctive, flamboyant approach to dance and storytelling.
This is described as a fresh take – it’s always a fresh take with balletLORENT - on a classic fairytale, a “dark and sweet” telling that “celebrates courage, imagination and the enduring magic of storytelling”.
Not too dark, though, presumably, since it has young participants and is deemed suitable for theatre-goers aged five plus.
Benefiting from the same gilt-edged creative team reunited, it has words by former Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy, recorded narration by Gina McKee, new score by Murray Gold, lights by Malcolm Rippeth, costumes by Nazir Mazhar, set by Mayou Trikerioti… and choreography and direction, of course, by Liv Lorent.
Nine professional dancers will be on stage for the five performances (matinees on Friday, Saturday and Sunday) alongside a young community cast.
THEATRE: The Highwayman
Where: Queen’s Hall, Hexham
When: Wed, Oct 28 (7.30pm); Thurs, Oct 29 (2pm)
Bookings and info: queenshall.co.uk
The John Godber Company rides into town this week, maybe tethering Black Bess outside a local hostelry before liberating some locals from their treasured possessions.
More likely, though, it’ll be on stage relating a tale born of archival material and John Godber’s fertile imagination.
He is the man best known for Bouncers and for a 1993 survey which revealed his plays were the most frequently performed after Shakespeare and Alan Ayckbourn.
He set up his eponymous company in 2011, along with his wife Jane Thornton, so they could create new works for theatre whose destiny they could control. This is the latest.
The Highwayman is set in 1769 when, we’re told, “everyone is flocking north, every ale house is packed with the great and the bad”.
Money being a powerful motivating factor, the temptation is great.
A cast of three is headed by Hull actor Emilio Encinoso-Gil as John Swift in what’s billed as “a new thrilling theatrical romantic adventure from the writer of Bouncers and Do I Love You?”
The latter was Godber’s hit Northern Soul comedy of 2023.
TALK: Finding Audrey Amiss
Where: Culture House Sunderland
When: Thursday, November 12, 6pm
Bookings and info: culturehousesunderland.co.uk
Work by the late Audrey Amiss forms the inaugural exhibition at the Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art (NGCA) in its new home.
Audrey was born in Sunderland although she spent most of her life in London where she worked as a civil servant.
Recognised when growing up as an artist full of promise, her mental health problems meant she abandoned her studies at the Royal Academy School of Art.
Art, though, remained her private passion and when she died the fruits of all her labours were found at her home.
Her paintings and copious scrapbooks are now looked after at the Wellcome Collection in London where Elena Carter is a collections development lead.
She spent over a year cataloguing Audrey’s work alongside other archivists and was a consultant on Typist Artist Pirate King, the film drama about her life.
In her talk Elena will share insights into the process of cataloguing and caring for Audrey’s work and explain what it tells us about her life.
Audrey Amiss: Kitchen Sink Realism runs at the NGCA until January 17, 2027.
MUSIC: Kathryn Tickell and the Darkening
Where: The Fire Station, Sunderland
When: November 4
Bookings and info: thefirestation.org.uk
Kathryn Tickell was there when The Fire Station opened its doors in 2021, headlining the Sunderland venue’s inaugural concert. Five years on, she’s back with The Darkening.
Inspired by the history and landscapes surrounding Hadrian’s Wall, the five-piece takes its name from an old Northumbrian word for twilight and draws on nearly 2,000 years of musical connections.
Tickell’s Northumbrian pipes and fiddle are joined by accordion, guitar, drums, ancient lyres and vocals, with Amy Thatcher, Heather Cartwright, Joe Truswell and Stef Conner completing the line-up.
Support comes from Holly Clarke
MUSIC: The Shires
Where: Sage One, The Glasshouse
When: November 5
Bookings and info: theglasshouseicm.org
There’s added significance to The Shires’ forthcoming Gateshead gig following the country duo’s announcement that they’ll be taking an indefinite break after their current tour.
Ben Earle and Crissie Rhodes have spent 13 years together, releasing six albums and helping establish British country music as a serious chart contender.
They became the first British country act to score a UK Top Ten album with 2015’s Brave, going on to win a Country Music Association award.
The tour setlist combines songs from across their career with material from Bonfire, their latest album, released in July.
THEATRE: Close Enough to Touch
Where: Arts Centre Washington
When: Thursday, Oct 29 (7.30pm)
Bookings and info: sunderlandculture.org.uk
On tour from theatre companies Red Ladder (Leeds) and Silent Uproar (Hull) is this one-man show giving voice to thoughts usually kept hidden.
“What happens when our deepest urges are shrouded in shame? What happens when we can’t articulate our desires, even to ourselves?”
So goes the billing for Henry Roberts’s play which has proven to be a 70-minute tour-de-force for actor Stefan Race who plays the character known as M.
We meet him sitting in a bus shelter, head in hands.
He has a girlfriend… and a secret.
We are told: “In this gripping, intimate drama, audiences are taken into the world of cruising – anonymous sex in public places.
“As our nameless character’s secret builds, so does his shame. The play swings between passion and pathos as we watch a young man struggle to find pleasure, acceptance and, crucially, the language to express himself.”
In 2023 Roberts’s script was longlisted for the Royal Shakespeare Company’s 37 Plays project marking 400 years since the publication of Shakespeare’s First Folio.
With a warning about “sexual description and strong language”, it’s aimed at ages 16 plus.
ART/POP: Pop Goes the Prism
Where: The Light, Aykley Heads, Durham
When: Friday, November 6, 7-10pm
Bookings and info: thelightdurham.org.uk/afterdark
Spice, The Spice Girls’ debut album, came out 30 years ago, selling many millions of copies.
There was (and is) no greater fan, it seems, than artist Liz West whose Our Spectral Vision features in the inaugural exhibition at The Light, Victory Over the Sun: Encounters with Light.
She owns a collection of Spice Girls memorabilia acknowledged by Guinness World Records and some items from it will be displayed beneath her artwork as part of the second in the venue’s After Dark series.
Liz will speak about the group’s impact on contemporary culture and the links between her art and her collection.
“I’m excited to be curating After Dark at The Light, bringing together two things that have always inspired me: the transformative power of light and colour and the joy, energy and unapologetic pop culture of the 1990s,” she says.
Items on display will include trainers worn by Mel B (Scary Spice), a rainbow striped outfit worn by Geri Halliwell (Ginger) and a blue and pink sequinned dress worn by Emma Bunton (Baby)
A 1990s pop set from DJ Annie FM and themed food and drinks are also promised.
EXHIBITION: By One’s Light
Where: VANE, Gateshead
When: Nov 11 to 14 (preview: Nov 10, 5-10pm)
Bookings and info: vane.org.uk
This short but intriguing exhibition has been organised and curated by fine art students and recent graduates of Newcastle University and the Slade School of Fine Art in London.
It comes to Gateshead after a first showing at London’s hARTslane Gallery (October 29-31) and is supported by Newcastle University’s Make it Happen Fund and the Bartlett Fund.
It features a range of work including prints, paintings, sculptures and audio-visual work by Newcastle University student Megan Nicholson.
Also representing Newcastle University are Callum Ashcroft, Milly Hawitt, Katarina Jimack and Eliza O’Boyle.
Representing the Slade are Ru Cave, Will Metcalfe, Anna-May Slowie and Emma Steensma.
The exhibition’s title apparently echoes a 16th Century metaphor for a person’s agency, instinct and moral code. In an artistic context it relates to one’s originality.
The exhibitors say all these values reflect their aims of encouraging artistic instinct and integrity in the current political and social climate.
VANE is located in the Orbis Community building which is 65 High Street, Gateshead (NE8 2AP) but better described as near the Gateshead end of the Tyne Bridge.
STILL SHOWING
Music: Paul Heaton, Utilita Arena Newcastle, Oct 29
Comedy: Crease, Live Theatre, Newcastle, Oct 29-31
Talk: Trevor Horn – Adventures in Modern Recording, Barnard Castle; Durham, Oct 30 and 31
Family: Heritage and Halloween at Beamish, Beamish Museum, County Durham, Oct 28, 30 and 31
Screen: Halloween All Nighters, Tyneside Cinema, Newcastle, Oct 31
Exhibition: Comic Worlds, The Auxillary, Middlesbrough, until Oct 31
Theatre/Music: House of Fun, The Fire Station, Sunderland, Oct 30
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
Theatre: It’s a Wonderful Us, Queen’s Hall, Hexham (Nov 12); and Washington Arts Centre (Nov 19)
Exhibition: Impressions of Light, Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle, until Mar 14, 2027 Read more
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
Theatre: The Hollow, Newcastle Theatre Royal, Nov 10-14
Screen: Amazing Grace + Q&A, Tyneside Cinema, Newcastle, Nov 22
Comedy: Flo and Joan - With Feeling, Tyne Theatre and Opera House, Newcastle, Nov 27
Music: Hector Gannet, Sage Two, The Glasshouse, Nov 27
Comedy/Music: Bill Bailey - Vaudevillean, Utilita Arena Newcastle, Dec 5
Comedy: Mark Thomas - 40 In Stand Up Years, The Stand Newcastle, Dec 13
2027
Music: Poppy Ackroyd, Gosforth Civic Theatre, Feb 26
Music: Rick Wakeman - The Wizard of Prog, Sage One, The Glasshouse, Feb 26
Theatre: The Labyrinth, Northern Stage, Newcastle, Mar 17
Theatre: The Mousetrap, Sunderland Empire, Mar 22-27
Music: James Blunt, Utilita Arena Newcastle, Mar 28
Comedy: Harriet Dyer- Easily Distra…, The Stand Newcastle, May 29
Theatre: Titanique, Newcastle Theatre Royal, Sept 15-27
🎄 FESTIVE FORECAST 🎄
Market: Sister Shack’s Yuletide Market, Gosforth Civic Theatre, Dec 11
Theatre: Christmas Gothic, Northern Stage, Dec 15
Screen: It’s A Wonderful Life + Festive Afternoon Tea, Tyneside Cinema, Newcastle, Dec 12-24
Market: Forage Christmas Market, Rigg and Furrow, Acklington, Northumberland, Dec 5-6
Family: Operation Christmas Eve, Life Science Centre, Newcastle, Nov 21-Dec 23
Market: Alnwick Castle Christmas Fair, Alnwick Castle, Northumberland, Nov 24-25
Family: Sing With Santa, The Fire Station, Sunderland, Dec 13
Music: Covers Club: Open Mic Night (Christmas Nearly Special), Barbour Room, The Glasshouse, Dec 5
Comedy: The Stand Christmas Special, The Stand Newcastle, Dec 17-19
Screen: The Holiday - 20th Anniversary, Jam Jar Cinema, Whitley Bay, Dec 12, 13, 20, 21 and 23
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 Dylan Moran who is bringing his new show, Looking for Trouble to the Tyne Theatre and Opera House* on November 4.
Having never seemed particularly impressed by modern life, the blurb for Moran’s latest stand-up show suggests little has changed.
In it, the Irish comedian, perhaps most widely known for playing the spectacularly bad-tempered Bernard Black in Black Books, considers the daily grind, our attachment to consumer comforts and whether life might have turned out differently.
Apparently, alternative paths could involve becoming a kickboxing champion, mastering chess or joining the ranks of trillionaire poet-pastry chefs.
Quite where all this leads is anyone’s guess, but we’re confident his brand of world-weary bewilderment will bring the funny in buckets.
Looking for Trouble will be at Middlesbrough Town Hall on November 5.
HOW TO ENTER:
To be in with a chance of winning, simply email MePlease@culturednortheast.co.uk using the subject line: ‘Looking for tickets’ by 5pm on Friday, October 30.
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.