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My theatre week - revisiting an old fave

Last night I was at the gala performance of Gerry & Sewell, which returns to the Theatre Royal this week for one last outing. It’s a different iteration again from the version last at the theatre, though alas I wasn’t able to get to London to see it in the West End earlier this year (those tricky health issues!) so I can’t comment on how it compares to that.

It was a fun, raucous night out, with the guests and press enjoying an interval / post-show spread of Greggs’ pasties and doughnuts, with the afterparty taking place in the Theatre Royal’s gorgeous new restaurant / bar space, The Green Room. I took a friend who hadn’t seen the show before, so was relieved she enjoyed it (even more so that her sister and nieces and nephews, who’d bought tickets on her recommendation - based on my recommendation - had loved it when they saw it earlier in the week. My reputation as an arbiter of taste remains intact!).

But honestly, even if you don’t love it - and I do know people who preferred the small-scale fringe show - it’s always a good thing to see working class voices in a fancy theatre, and be reminded that they belong there as much as anyone else.

So, in honour of that, I’m resharing a piece I wrote on my blog last time it was at the Theatre Royal…

[Image description: The Theatre Royal facade adorned with Gerry & Sewell / NUFC flags]

[Fun random interaction: when we were in the bar, seated by the window, a man wandered up to us, looked wistfully at these banners and said, I wonder if when they are done, they’d let me have one if I asked. Then shook his head sadly and went, nah, the wife would go mad, and wandered off before we could respond…]

[Note also: the essay below was obviously written before Laurels shuttered - temporarily? - so is dated in places. While the core cast remain the same, the new production has some changes, including the addition of another of my faves, David Nellist, who was so good recently in I, Daniel Blake].

Gerry & Sewell - a journey

It’s April 2022 and I’m on a Metro to Whitley Bay see a play at a little theatre I know nothing about, more excited if I am honest about the excuse to see the coast than I am to sit through a show about football.

Having lived on the seafront at Brighton for five years, I miss the sea like you wouldn’t believe, so am grateful for any chance to be by the water – but while I was interested to check out a new venue, I can’t say the idea of the play Gerry & Sewell itself particularly enticed me. I liked the film Purely Belter fine (based on the same source material, Jonathan Tulloch’s novel The Season Ticket), but my interest in football stories is limited and my love of Newcastle United was soured in the Joey Barton era and never really recovered.

Still, it’s always a thrill and a privilege to review local stuff for The Stage, since I believe it’s important to spotlight theatre outside of London, and to draw attention to the wealth of talent and new writing my region has to offer. Worst case scenario, I sit through a boring show. Well, had I known then what I know now, at least that wouldn’t be one of my fears. Because I’ve since learned that the one thing Laurels doesn’t do is ‘boring’.

In the end, this first iteration of Gerry & Sewell pretty much blew me away. I expected it to be a laddish story of football stuffed with crude jokes – and, don’t get me wrong, on some level it is a laddish story about football stuffed with crude jokes. But it was also a lot more than that. The design, for a start, was more ambitious than I recall seeing in a fringe theatre, the set so complex and layered it almost rendered the production immersive. Writer and director (and Laurels AD) Jamie Eastlake’s storytelling was funny and humane, and not as macho as I had feared – the female characters felt real and rounded, fleshed out to an extraordinary degree by a sinuous and protean Becky Clayburn, who was unknown to me at the time but has since become one of my favourite performers.

In my 4-star review for The Stage I called it a bold statement of intent for a new theatre, and I was right. Laurels has since proven itself since to be an ambitious venue, willing to stage offbeat and difficult stories. Not perfect, by any means, but a valuable addition to the region’s new writing scene. Where else are we going to get a story about right-wing radicalisation featuring an insane monkey puppet or domestic violence against men based on the human characters in Chicken Run?

When I heard the show was transferring to Live Theatre around a year later – part of Live’s admirable commitment to supporting the North East theatre eco-system with a steady stream of cross-pollination from theatres like Laurels and Alphabetti – I was interested to see how it would work on a bigger stage.

I didn’t expect the material to change much, especially since two of the original trio were reprising their roles – Clayburn and Dean Logan (Gerry), joined by Jack Robertson, who would take over the role of Sewell, with Eastlake still directing. Live is a much bigger space than Laurels – and under AD Jack McNamara it’s made some impressively bold staging choices that use the space with real imagination – but it’s not a big big stage, as such. I’ve seen plenty of small-scale solo shows there that don’t feel swamped, so I thought that Gerry & Sewell would slot right in without much of an adjustment.

Oh, well, just shows what I know. I honestly can’t recall the last time I saw a show so impressively scaled up. All the bits I loved remained, but ramped up to 11 (Clayburn, in particular, was given a chance to let loose and seized it with both hands). Spectacularly designed by The Set Guise (with a full-sized replica of a Metro on stage) the piece was injected with a ferocious, strutting energy and swagger that combined to make it one of the year’s best nights out. So, the question I had last night, when I was headed to see the show again on an even bigger stage at Newcastle’s Theatre Royal, was – could they pull off the same trick again?

The Theatre Royal doesn’t, on the surface, seem the best fit for such a defiantly working-class play. A receiving theatre that plays host to opera and ballet, to the ‘big’ touring musicals and Shakespeares when they are in town, with its fancy décor, higher prices and on-the-door bag searches, it can be pretty intimidating if you are more used to the less formal setting of the city’s other theatres.

To the theatre’s credit, though, they recognise this, and seem intent on tackling it as best they can within their own remit. The recent opening of the Studio Space, which can host smaller plays by local companies, and the theatre’s move back into co-producing – first with Pride & Prejudice (Sort of) and now this – all speak to a determination to become more than just a fancy venue for big shows to visit, but instead to become a cultural hub that supports the region’s talent and welcomes the region’s audiences, in all their variety.

Certainly, this felt on display last night. While obviously, I was lucky because I got to go to the press night party – catered to my plus one’s delight with Gregg’s pasties, doughnuts and glasses of Newcastle Brown Ale – the theatre was adorned with black and white football strips and flags, no hint of stuffiness in sight. It felt lively and welcoming. It felt fun.

The play itself has scaled up again. The central trio remain, but the parts that were previously multi-roled by Clayburn have been expanded into a bigger cast: former Liberty X star Michelle Heaton as Gerry’s mother (yes, there’s a joke in there about that), soap star Bill Ward as his feckless father, and Erin Mullen as his tragic sister, Bridget. (Fear not, Clayburn fans – she still gets plenty to do).

In truth, my favourite version remains the Live production – it perfectly hit my personal sweet spot of ambition and intimacy in a way that simply can’t be replicated in a larger venue. But I can see why it was necessary to change it for a much bigger audience, and I can’t fault the way it was done.

All of the cast excel in this new production. Mullen and Heaton are sympathetic as the doomed women who provide the only softness in Gerry’s life, while Ward perfectly captures the mawkish sentimentality of a man who sees himself as a tragic figure, without having the self-awareness to realise in reality he inflicts tragedy on everyone else (the scene where he insists on singing a mournful Jimmy Nail song encapsulates this so perfectly I actually winced).

The ensemble is fleshed out and given a raucous energy by a huge community ensemble – a Romeo and Juliet dance-off between a Sunderland and an NUFC fan was a particularly sweet moment. (Props are due to the multi-talented movement director Lucy Curry (who, as half of theatre company Peachplant, is just off a successful run at Laurels for the company’s play Subterranea: does the woman ever sleep?)). The Set Guise make a triumphant return, as does the life-sized Metro. There’s even a very cute dog puppet (designed and made by Georgia Hill). The result is a production that pretty much blows the doors off.

From the anarchic chaos of the flag-waving opener – complete with an exhortation that it’s not just OK but encouraged to film that bit on your phones – this doesn’t feel like a play you would normally expect to be staged at a theatre like this. But in all its defiant swagger and unapologetically working-class tones, it’s also asking: why shouldn’t this story belong here? Why shouldn’t we hear Newcastle voices on the city’s biggest stage? To its credit, the Theatre Royal is listening. I can’t wait to see what it does next.

[Image description: a spread of Gregg’s pasties and sausage rolls (some obviously vegan), and doughnuts, in front of a poster for Gerry & Sewell’s 2026 run]

Back to the present:

There are only limited tickets left for the rest of the run, so if you fancy it, get booking!

And if you want to read my interview with the core cast and creatives, you can do so below. Meanwhile please enjoy these photos of me cheesing near a Shearer shirt, because apparently some things never change…

[Image description: A smiling Tracey leaning into a black and white NUFC Shearer strip, sitting on a bench with an NUFC logo - in the dressing room at St James’]

[Image description: Tracey, smiling, in a purple sequin dress, standing in front of two hanging NUFC strips, one of which bears Shearer’s name]

Exeunt

'Seeing the North East in the West End can only be a good thing – even if we lose stacks of money’

Welcome back – we hope you all had a good Christmas and new year. Today, we have our North East expert Tracey Sinclair charting the cheering good news story that is Gerry & Sewell: a show that’s steadily grown in scale as it’s transferred from a fringe…

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5 months ago · 6 likes · Exeunt

What I have been watching

Having spent so much time stuck in the house / not working during my recovery, I treated myself to an HBO subscription so I could watch The Pitt. It is as good as everyone says, but one show doesn’t make for a good value subscription, so I have been scrabbling to find other things to watch that make me feel like I’m not wasting my money.

Initially, I ignored the fact that Aaron Sorkin’s show The Newsroom was available, despite the fact that The West Wing is one of my favourite ever shows. I have vague memories of watching episode 1 when it came out and finding it smug and self-satisfied, so I never bothered watching more.

In truth, I think that both this show and his one-season Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip suffered from the same issue, applying the same gravitas and sense of import to TV shows as it did to the life and death decisions of government, which at the time I found a little bit self-indulgent. Nobody dies cos your celebrity guest can’t make the show or you have to shave a minute off a news report.

Having revisited both shows with some distance, I have now been won over by both. The Newsroom, in particular, makes a solid argument that TV should be treated with the same seriousness as government, because how we consume our news affects how we see the world.

Both shows are very Sorkin, with all the good and bad that implies. The female characters are all that particular brand of Sorkin Women: brilliant, beautiful but quirkily flawed and operating in a world that is overwhelmingly masculine. The male characters are messed up romantics with deeply moral cores. Everyone is painfully articulate but emotionally repressed. And, like The West Wing, both critique America, but even with the explicit ‘we aren’t the greatest country in the world’ speech in episode one, both shows don’t actually challenge the belief that America is exceptional with anything like the depth they pretend to.

But if you can accept that as the price of entry, both are worth your time. Studio 60 offers us the Matthew Perry / Bradley Whitford team up you didn’t know you needed (and is a little heartbreaking in retrospect, because you see a glimpse of the actor Perry could have been if he hadn’t been steamrollered by the Friends juggernaut and the demons that came with that level of fame). There are some fun guests and nods to The West Wing, and if you are worried that a show that got cancelled after one season will leave you hanging, don’t be, the season has a satisfying conclusion.

The Newsroom had three seasons (though, actually, pretty much the same number of episodes) and a similarly satisfying send off. Headed by Jeff Daniels, Emily Mortimer and Sam Waterston, it features a host of great actors (including Jane Fonda, Alison Pill and a young Dev Patel).

It also offers a fascinating snapshot of a world on the brink of change, when billionaires were just starting to buy up news organisations and social media was changing how things were reported and what was seen as news. For that reason, it’s a little depressing - you can’t watch it without feeling acutely that we’ve lost something valuable - but it’s compelling. I’d heartily recommend checking out both shows.

Anyway, thanks again for reading – please do share with your friends! Every new subscriber really does give me a boost. And remember if you want to support my writing but a paid subscription isn’t for you (times are hard, I get it!), you can buy me a one-off Ko-fi or buy one of my books.

Remember: everything included is my personal preference / opinion, and while I strive to be accurate, I always advising checking with the relevant venue.

My theatre diary

Ensemble ‘84

Ensemble ’84 is one of the most exciting new theatre companies around, and I was lucky enough to score press night tickets to their latest show, The Tragicall Historie of Hamlet - Shakespeare’s First Quarto, last week. It was one of the best productions of Hamlet I’ve seen in a while. Based on a shorter, earlier version, it was different enough to shake you out of familiarity with the text, and was a fast-paced, muscular take on the classic.

It was also perfect for the company’s new venue, which puts the audience right in the thick of the action. Opened recently by Ian McKellen, it’s a gorgeous space – with the caveat that there are limited toilets (as far as I could tell the set up was one ladies’ indoors, the men’s are portaloos outside, though I admit I didn’t double check the outside situation. I also didn’t check accessibility, so advise checking that before booking anything if you have access needs).

I also like the commitment to making things affordable – drinks and programmes are pay what you feel, or certainly were on press night. (If I had one comment on that, it would be maybe add a suggested amount, as I found myself stressing over what was an acceptable amount to pay for wine. Also, it would be great to add bottled water to the selection for those non-drinkers who don’t want fizzy pop, or make tap water more obviously available).

But if I have a criticism, it’s that my friend and I (and some others I spoke to on the way out) found the seats impossibly, cripplingly uncomfortable. Hard wooden benches might look shiny and nice, but if you are expecting people to sit through 90 minutes, no-interval – and catering for a mostly older audience – that’s a set up with the potential to be positively punishing. (I get that I am probably oversensitive to comfort at the moment, of course…).

I did discuss this with someone from the theatre and they said they would feed it back. It’s hardly unreasonable for a new venue to have teething troubles, and I admire the fact that they were so open to feedback. But in the meantime, unless you have core strength to die for, you might want to take a cushion…

Unfortunately, Hamlet finishes this weekend, so if you aren’t booked already, you might miss out. For what I assume are financial reasons, the shows tend to be quite short runs, so if you fancy anything that is coming up, I suggest booking in advance.

The next production, returning for a very short run after its successful debut last year, is Pits, People and Players. While it lacks the expansive ambition of the company’s other shows, which integrate international influences, this history of Horden is necessarily rooted strongly in the locality. It’s a fascinating insight into the place and people, and definitely worth catching. (If you want to really understand the full emotional impact of the finale, I suggest you read up a little on the ‘Marra’ statue in Horden, Ray Lonsdale’s statue of a miner with his heart ripped out.)

[Image description: flier for A Sudden, Disturbing to do list]

A Sudden, Disturbing To Do List

It was bittersweet to be at Alphabetti this week, since it’s about to (mostly) go dark as it prepares for its rebrand. Its closure, even temporary, will leave a big hole in the Newcastle scene, although I am excited to see what emerges on the other side.

So it was nice to be offered tickets to Eleanor May Blackburn’s A Sudden, Disturbing to do List, a solo show about mental health, especially OCD. Blackburn is a disabled, neurodivergent, queer, working-class creative from Sheffield, and it’s always welcome to see such voices on stage, even if the show itself didn’t entirely work for me. I think in part this wasn’t its fault – seeing it so soon after the similarly themed but much slicker Split Ends meant it suffered in comparison. But it also felt a little repetitive and unfocused, overstretched at even an hour run time.

Still, it’s a brave performance and tackles an important and oft-misunderstood subject with humour and boldness, wrangling with mental health in all its incovenient messiness, with no easy resolution offered. For that, I applaud it.

The show is on tour throughout June - see above flier for details.

What to book now

If you’re fast, you can get tickets to the new People’s Theatre production, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, the Simon Stephens adaptation of the Mark Haddon best-seller.

I’ve talked a ton about Gerry & Sewell in previous newsletters, so of course I’m going to mention its final outing, which comes to the Theatre Royal this month. I’ve seen the progress of this show from tiny upstairs room to Laurels all the way to the West End and back, so feel a sort of vicarious pride in its progress (even though I am gutted to have missed the London show). While my favourite iteration remains the Live Theatre version – that’s my sweet spot of intimacy and boldness – this version is well worth checking out.

There are a host of great shows coming up at the Theatre Royal, and it is one of those venues where booking ahead for the big stuff is advised (source: me, being annoyed that time Six had sold out before I even thought about buying tickets). My friend and I booked Operation Mincemeat as soon as the tickets were announced, so I’m looking forward to that finally coming around this month. Next year’s ‘must book now’ show is probably the touring production of Hadestown, which goes on sale soon and I imagine will be a sell out. I’d also suggest booking for Our Friends in The North, the Live co-production, as I’ve heard that is already selling fast.

Speaking of Live and Our Friends in the North, I was very excited to score tickets to see Christopher Eccleston perform the Peter Flannery monologue The Name of That Song later this month. I’ve seen Eccleston on stage before, and he’s a compelling presence.

While Live’s next big show doesn’t kick off till autumn, they have a packed programme of short-run shows and readings over the summer, so it’s definitely worth checking out their website.

Crossing the Tees book festival

Also happening in June, this festival offers a packed schedule of events around Stockton, Darlington and Hartlepool and more. This includes workshops, performances, readings and talks, many of which are free.

There are some well-known names in there – including Brian Groom and Horrible Histories’ Terry Deary, as well as local author showcases, so do check out the programme here.

[Image description: Last One Out by Jane Harper]

What I have been reading

Few authors can capture a sense of place like Jane Harper, whose novels (mostly) focus on the pressures and pleasures of small Australian communities, most famously in The Dry, which was made into an Eric Bana film. Her latest, Last One Out, is a murder mystery set against the backdrop of a town in decline, gradually being subsumed by the giant mine on its outskirts.

In some ways, it feels like a companion to the book I read last month, Tana French’s The Keeper. French’s book is set in an Irish town that has – so far successfully – seen off such encroachment, Harper’s is a community that has already lost the fight, and it makes for fascinating mirror perspectives.

This wasn’t my favourite of Harper’s novels – the plot felt stretched a little too thin for the length of the book – but her prose and ability to write people and places makes even her weaker offerings worth reading. (I also found the ending genuinely moving.)

Anyway, thanks again for reading – please do share with your friends! Every new subscriber really does give me a boost. And remember if you want to support my writing but a paid subscription isn’t for you (times are hard, I get it!), you can buy me a one-off Ko-fi or buy one of my books.

Remember: everything included is my personal preference / opinion, and while I strive to be accurate, I always advising checking with the relevant venue.

My theatre diary

While I am still very much in recovery mode, I have managed to start getting out and about a bit, which is definitely making me feel more human. (Huge thank you to all the theatre PRs who have been very accommodating of my requests for aisle seats in case I need to leave / stretch out a bit during a show without disrupting people…)

This week I have Durham company Ensemble ’84, The Tragicall Historie of Hamlet - Shakespeare’s First Quarto, the first production at their new base. Offering a fresh version of this Shakespeare classic, this is another compelling choice for a company that is doing really interesting things and generally seems to be punching above its weight (the new venue was opened by none other than Ian McKellen!)

Next week sees me at A Sudden, Disturbing Thing to do at Alphabetti, Eleanor May Blackburn’s dark comedy about OCD, metal health and toxic workplaces.

Book now!

I think I already mentioned this, but James Rowland is bringing his show Team Viking to Live in June and it’s definitely worth seeing. I saw this in Brighton years ago and it stuck with me, and made Rowland a favourite of mine. A heartwarming and (perhaps surprisingly) funny tale of friendship and loss, it’s likely to sell out so get booking!

[Image description: pink flier for the Goat or who is Sylvia, against pink leopard print background]

The Goat or, Who is Sylvia?

(Warning: this review spoils major plot points)

Last night I was at The People’s Theatre for another studio show, Edward Albee’s The Goat or, Who is Sylvia?

Although it can’t compare to the main stage, I do like the studio at The People’s – it’s way less pokey than that title usually suggests (or maybe I spend a lot of my time in tiny rooms), and the plays staged there offer the same high production value levels that characterise the main stage shows. Case in point: Tim Swinton’s elegant design easily conjures the upper-class New York apartment where the action of Sylvia takes place.

Another thing I love about The People’s is it makes some really bold choices. I always imagined (perhaps incorrectly) that amateur theatre shows were generally safe revivals of large-cast shows so that everyone gets a turn. Over the last few years, The People’s has roundly disabused me of that notion, and nothing illustrates that boldness more than choosing this controversial play.

Because – and there’s no way around this fact – this play is about a man shagging a goat. More than that, a man in love with the goat he is shagging. And really not seeing what the problem is with this. So, it’s obviously not a play for everyone.

I first saw this two decades ago: I saw it at the Almeida, which did an acclaimed production in 2004 that transferred to the West End. Embarrassingly, I remember nothing about it except the central premise and Jonathan Pryce being unsurprisingly excellent. So, it turns out I’ve seen Eddie Redmayne (he played the son) on stage – who knew? Though I suppose that means I could sit back and enjoy this production unfettered by comparisons.

Enjoy, perhaps, is not the right word for a play that skewers social taboos and the limits of ‘liberal’ tolerance, and doesn’t always do so in a straightforward or unproblematic way. (There’s definitely some uncomfortable moments where either Martin – or the play, it’s hard to tell – seems to equate his son’s gayness with his own bestiality, and their relationship tips precariously towards an incestuous act).

So: not an easy sell. But I was impressed how the theatre handled such complex and difficult material, and allowed the dark humour of the piece to shine through. The cast were generally excellent in roles that aren’t always sympathetic.

Mark Burden as Martin captures the complexity of a man felled by something he can’t find himself to see as wrong, while Anna Dobson brings the emotional devastation of a woman whose comfortable life unravels in moments. Bill Harrington is the old friend who sets the tragedy in motion with his own horror, while Gavinder Srai is the son caught in the middle of it, and does well in the role that of the four is the most under written.

Director Hugh Keegan keeps the tension high, though there’s an argument that the interval after an extremely short first half is unbalancing and the play would be better for being run straight through (but I get it: bar economics are a necessity for most venues).

Overall, this definitely isn’t a play for the easily outraged, but I’d recommend it if you’re bored of safe choices, and I applaud The People’s for choosing to stage it.

The play runs till May 30 so if you want to see it, act fast!

What I have been reading

I’ve long been a fan of Tana French, whose Dublin murder series is one of my favourites. Her Cal Hooper series – about a Chicago detective who relocates to a small Irish town and gets caught up in all its secrets – appeals to me a little less, but her prose and plotting makes anything she writes worth reading, so I picked up the latest, The Keeper, when I had some vouchers to use.

So far, I’m really enjoying it: I think it may even turn out to be the strongest in the series. More than just a murder mystery, it examines small town dynamics and the looming threat of development that threatens to change a long-established way of life, for better or worse, and does a good job of making you invested in even the side characters.

[Image description: The Keeper by Tana French, on leopard print background]

Anyway, thanks again for reading – please do share with your friends! Every new subscriber really does give me a boost. And remember if you want to support my writing but a paid subscription isn’t for you (times are hard, I get it!), you can buy me a one-off Ko-fi or buy one of my books.

Remember: everything included is my personal preference / opinion, and while I strive to be accurate, I always advising checking with the relevant venue.

(Also: please excuse any typos /errors, I am recovering from being out last night which took a bigger toll than I anticipated).

[Image description: flier for Great Granda Apicius]

My theatre diary

It’s been a busy couple of weeks for theatre – too busy, probably, since I fast realised I was overcommitted for this point in my recovery and not even taking a trusty cushion (or dosing up on the good painkillers) would help. Alas, no sick pay for freelancers so a girl’s gotta do etc, and at least I enjoyed the shows! You can read my 4-star reviews of Astell & Woolf at Live and Little Shop of Horrors at Northern Stage (before heading to Derby) at The Stage, as well as my 3 stars for Elysium’s Long Day’s Journey into Night, which is touring.

You can also read my recs for upcoming / current shows here:

Exeunt

Exeunt recommends... the best summer theatre

Astell & Woolf – Live Theatre, Newcastle…

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a month ago · 5 likes · Exeunt

Classics Fest

Unfortunately, I didn’t manage to catch much of Classics Fest due to above-mentioned over-commitment / need to recover by lying in bed for hours. But I did manage to catch one of the closing shows, Great Grandpa Apicius, at Alphabetti.

In keeping with this year’s topic of food and drink, this short play by Abby Walker was selected from entrants to a call out for pieces earlier this year, with the theme ‘inspired by the ancient cookbook Cooking with Apicius, by Marcus Gavius Apicius (AD 14-37).’

The event included an entertaining talk on Apicius by historian Dr Christopher Grocock, who gave us some insight into Apicius and his times. This was followed by the play, then, after the interval, a Q&A (though unfortunately I wasn’t feeling well enough to stay for that.)

Directed by Alphabetti AD Ed Cole, this was a two-hander featuring Elijah Young (himself a talented playwright, and also a star of BBC comedy Smoggie Queens) and stage stalwart Judi Earle, both of whom I’ve seen in many things and been impressed with.

It was a cute idea. Young is Josh, a wannabe influencer who wants to use his grandma Elsie (Earle) for content, only for her to fool him into thinking classic author Apicius is actually part of the family. It pokes a lot of fun at the shallow nature of influencers and the solipsism of youth, with a lack of interest in (or knowledge of) anything that predates their own existence.

But Walker – who is herself young (she was recently one of the two winners in the under-26 category at Live’s North East Playwriting Awards) – tackles the subject with fondness. There’s nothing mean in her portrayal of either Josh or Elise, and the result is charming, funny and warm-hearted, enlivened by some sharp dialogue and nice observation. Both actors were still on book, but the informal nature of Alphabetti and the evening made that not really matter, and they made for an engaging pair.

Walker is clearly a star on the rise. As well as winning a host of other awards alongside the Live one, she also has a piece in Hooley Theatre touring show, Haddaway & Write, which showcases local talent. Featuring work by Walker, Lewis Cuthbert, Mel Hunter, Tom Smith, Lizzie Lovejoy and John Dawson, with directors Sarah Bond (also a talented playwright, who won Laurels’ Richard Jenkinson Commission and was nominated in the prestigious The Stage debut awards for her excellent play Seagulls and Sad, Sad Stories) and Jessica Robson. I saw this at Northern Stage, but it is touring local venues throughout May.

Showcases can be a bit hit and miss, but I enjoyed all six pieces in this, and the acting was solid throughout. There was enough variety to avoid it feeling samey, and they were nicely ordered (too often, I find showcases are too focused on individual pieces and don’t think about pacing or flow when they put them together). Walker’s piece Rita in 3C - about a curmudgeonly care home resident - was one of the strongest, so this definitely marks her as one to watch.

[Image description: poster for Astell & Woolf]

What I have been reading

I was a huge fan of Hallie Rubenhold’s The Five, which was a retelling of the Jack the Ripper story solidly focused on the lives of his victims and the society that shaped them. Her latest, Story of a Murder, is an examination of the Crippen murder case and the press furore that surrounded it. Again this centres the women at the heart of the story – not just the victim herself, Belle Elmore, but her friends, Crippen’s first wife (and possibly his first victim), and his mistress. As gripping as a novel, this is a fascinating insight into what was called the crime of the century, and how history has distorted the figures at its core.

Where I have been eating

The Kiln in Ouseburn has long been a favourite of mine. A spacious, nicely laid out interior, with an outdoor space that gives the place a cool Brooklyn vibe, this is a great place to eat or have coffee and cake or even a cocktail, especially when the weather turns nice. (Props for super friendly staff, also). It’s also a short walk from some cool shops (I was particularly taken with The Find, which is just across the way from Seven Stories, but there are a host of great wee shops in the vicinity selling vintage clothes, trinkets, jewellery, gifts and stationery). Also worth a wander to Northern Rye, which sells delicious bread, cakes and a select range of deli goodies (though be warned, the bread often sells out early).

The upside of getting to go out again is I am raiding my wardrobe for all my sparkly frocks so please enjoy this old fave. Cushion and painkillers not pictured.

[Image description: Tracey mirror selfie in silver sparkly dress and silver zebra print black tights].

Anyway, thanks again for reading – please do share with your friends! Every new subscriber really does give me a boost. And remember if you want to support my writing but a paid subscription isn’t for you (times are hard, I get it!), you can buy me a one-off Ko-fi or buy one of my books.

Remember: everything included is my personal preference / opinion, and while I strive to be accurate, I always advising checking with the relevant venue.

This has been a week of dipping myself back into theatre, post-surgery. It’s been slightly more challenging than I hoped – Wednesday saw me begging painkillers off a friend so I could manage to sit in a theatre seat for two hours – but being able to dress up and go out among people, to see and think and write about theatre, has felt like another step to getting back to myself after what has been a harrowing few months. (Or far longer, if I’m honest about how long I ignored that something was wrong in my body and the impact that had on my state of mind).

Wednesday kicked off with the press night for Little Shop of Horrors, the beautifully designed revival which is a co-production of Northern Stage and Derby Theatre. I thought bits of the material were dated and occasionally problematic, but the songs are still strong and the performances excellent: you can read my 4-star review here.

Look, Ma, I left the house!

[Image description: a mirror selfie of Tracey, in a red sequin dress and gold boots).

Split Ends

Last night, I was at Alphabetti for Split Ends, Claudia Shnier’s solo show about an abusive relationship and her own OCD. I admit I’m always interested in theatrical portrayals of the much-misunderstood condition of OCD – one of my closest friends has it, and I lived for a while with a flatmate who had it, and who, similar to Shnier, saw her condition worsen due to the stress of a relationship (and in my flatmate’s case, a pregnancy). So I already know that it’s far more than the common misconception of just wanting your pens lined up on your desk or checking the oven is switched off ten times (hell, I do that).

Shnier has spoken eloquently about how creating the show has helped her process both the reality of her relationship, allowing her to recognise its abusive nature, and how that impacted and exacerbated her OCD. (You can read her excellent piece on Exeunt below).

Certainly, the show feels raw and personal: barefoot, clad only in workout shorts and a sports bra, with both her strength and vulnerability on full display – she talks about building her physical strength to hide what she felt was internal weakness – Shnier is a compelling presence, and it’s impossible to look away no matter how uncomfortable the moment gets.

It’s a boldly physical piece, particularly effective in the intimate space at Alphabetti. A hoover and a pair of scissors stand in for the ex (with tweezers a stand in for a concerned friend / relative), giving her the chance to have an ongoing dialogue with those around her. At various stages, we see Shnier kiss and even fellate the scissors, and have sex with the vacuum cleaner, but it never feels like she is being outrageous for the sake of it. The danger inherent in putting a blade in your mouth is allowing a man to control your emotions; a vacuum sucks up everything, including her life and sense of self.

There’s a multimedia element to the piece: various iterations of ‘Claudia’ interact with the one on stage, offering scolds or encouragement (with audio produced by Oscar Gross). Again, she manages to make this add layers rather than seem gimmicky. There’s a recognition not just of how deeply she was affected by events, but how inexplicable her acquiescence to them can seem from an external perspective: surely all you need to stop cutting and plucking your hair is a little self-control? If a man hurts you, why do you keep letting him back in your life? She recognises the questions, even as she offers no easy answers.

For a piece with such bleak undercurrents, it is often very funny, but while an enormously engaging and likeable performer, mining her self-deprecation for laughs, she is also adept at holding the audience’s attention through the quiet, darker moments.

Having already won acclaim at Brighton Fringe (where it was nominated for Best New Show) and been performed at Edinburgh and Camden Fringes, as well as in her native Australia, this is the show’s first regional UK tour. It will also be performed to NHS staff in hospitals, to offer insight into coercive control and its effect on mental and physical health. Alas, it was only on at Alphabetti a couple of nights, but if you are near any of the other venues it is visiting (I think only Falmouth and Manchester are left on this tour, but I imagine it’ll be back to others at some stage), it’s definitely worth your time.

Credits:

Written, directed and performed by Claudia Shnier

Sound design, composition, video design and editing by Claudia Shnier

Audio produced by Oscar Gross

Exeunt

'It was only after my first performance that I recognised our relationship for what it was'

Read more

2 months ago · 5 likes · Exeunt

Edit: An earlier version incorrectly credited video production to Oscar Gross. The video was produced by Shnier, the audio by Gross.

Bookshop cafes

For obvious reasons, I haven’t been out much lately, and until this week any outings other than hospital appointments were limited to where friends were willing to drive me. But I did manage to get to a couple of cute indie bookshops, one of which I have been following on Instagram for a while, the other that was an unknown to me.

Books and Bakes is a relatively new addition to the scene. A compact shop sitting right next to Asda in Washington Galleries, this offers an Instagrammable interior and a well-curated selection of books (with a strong romance / romantasy slant, but also local authors and mainstream fiction and non-fiction), with a handful of tables where you can drink coffee and indulge in a slice of cake. They also host events (I tried to go again on Sunday, but it was closed for a private event – so do check their Instagram for details!)

[Image description: exterior and interior of Books & Bakes]

However, not being able to go to Books and Bakes turned out to be a good thing, as it led me to Paper and Park, in Chester-le-Street. A larger space, with more tables, this is also (I believe) a fairly new offering, and one that equally deserves your support. Again, it feels like the stock leans towards romantasy, Greek myth / historical reimaginings and fantasy, but it’s not short on mainstream fiction or quirky choices, and it’s a great place to grab a coffee. (Pro-tip: Willow’s Bakehouse just across the street does fantastic cheese scones – try the cheese and jalapeno - and a delicious custard tart the size of your head, should you want to stock up on takeaway snacks).

What I have been reading

I suspended my book buying ban in order to support indie bookshops, and received some book gifts this week, so I have a fantastic pile of new reads. The latest John Connolly Charlie Parker book, A River Red with Blood, was a satisfying addition to one of my favourite series. A less-known quantity to me was The Brides, Charlotte Cross’ prequel to Dracula, which focuses on his brides and how they ended up in his thrall. A gripping historical novel with a queer love story at its heart, this is a fresh, compelling take on a very well-trodden story.

Far more niche was Andrea Wulf’s Magnificent Rebels, a non-fiction look at the ‘Jena set’, a group of writers and philosophers who kick-started the Romanticism movement, and who, while (mostly) little remembered – with the exception of Goethe and Hegel – were hugely influential in their own time and beyond.

I was also gifted Story of a Murder, Hallie Rubenhold’s investigation of the Crippen murders. I am a huge fan of The Five, Rubenhold’s biography of the women killed by Jack the Ripper, so when a friend recommended this to me - and then kindly sent me a copy - I was keen to read it. As with all of Ruenhold’s work, this centres the women and victims rather than the perpetrator, and it offers a fascinating insight not only into the key figures of the crime, but also the environment they existed in, including London’s theatre scene.

What I have been watching

I’ve been in the house so much that I justified subscribing – at least temporarily – to HBO so I could finally watch The Pitt. As gripping and well-acted as everyone says it is, this is a worthy successor to ER, though its premise is part 24 (the action takes place over a single shift, each episode covering one hour) and its aesthetic reminded me a lot of The Bear. As someone who just spent an awful lot of time under the care of the NHS, it also made me grateful for that institution – no matter how flawed – and despairing of those who seem happy to vote against their own interests for those who would dismantle it.

Anyway, thanks again for reading – please do share with your friends! Every new subscriber really does give me a boost. And remember if you want to support my writing but a paid subscription isn’t for you (times are hard, I get it!), you can buy me a one-off Ko-fi or buy one of my books.

Remember: everything included is my personal preference / opinion, and while I strive to be accurate, I always advising checking with the relevant venue.

Also, this is the first time I’ve sat properly at a desk in weeks so excuse any typos or errors.

[Image description: hospital table with toast and a mug of coffee on it]

My theatre diary

It’s been an odd few weeks, to be sure, but (touch wood) my recovery is going well enough that I am resuming my theatre schedule – just in time to see some great shows, starting next week. If you see me hobbling like an old lady, no you didn’t.

The big show of the week is of course Little Shop of Horrors, which opens at Northern Stage before touring. This season marks a return to form for Northern Stage after a couple of less exciting years, so I’m keen to see both this and the rest of the season.

Also at Northern Stage is the touring production of Long Day’s Journey into Night. I’m slightly scared of how my poor injured body will cope with the three-hour run time – I might have to bring a cushion for my back! – but I’ve long been keen to see work by local company Elysium, so I’m pleased the timings finally work out.

I have two shows lined up at Alphabetti: I mentioned Split Ends in a previous newsletter, but I am keen to see this show about the reality of OCD and coercive relationship and their impact. If you want to read more about it, the always interesting Exeunt did a piece:

Exeunt

'It was only after my first performance that I recognised our relationship for what it was'

Read more

2 months ago · 5 likes · Exeunt

Also at Alphabetti is Abby Walker’s Great Granda Apicius, which is part of this year’s Classics Fest and is inspired by a 2,000-year-old cookbook. The play is directed by Ed Cole, Betti’s Artistic Director, and was the winning submission in a competition.

Another exciting ‘big’ show is the opening of Astell and Woolf, Shelagh Stephenson’s new play, at Live Theatre, with the press night the following week.

I’m also hoping to catch the showcase by Blowin’ a Hooley, Haddaway & Write, six short plays by local talent, including another one by Abby Walker, and one by John Dawson, whose work I have seen before and found interesting. It’s touring, so you can check out details of this and the company’s other work on their website.

Classics Fest

Running from 14-16 May, this year’s Classics Fest has the theme Food & Feasting in Antiquity. A collaboration between the Lit & Phil and the School of History, Classics & Archaeology at Newcastle University, it offers a packed programme that includes everything from talks to performances to wine and food tastings, spanning venues that include the University, the Lit & Phil, the Hancock Museum, the Tyneside Cinema and Alphabetti.

Highlights include Trimalchio’s Dinner Party, which includes afternoon tea and a screening of Fellini’s Satyricon at the Tyneside, Laura Coffey’s A Gourmet Journey through the Odyssey and a wine tasting Wine from Antiquity to Now. A lot of the events are free (the charged for ones tend to be the ones that include food or drink) but booking is essential.

The Late Shows

If you are looking for something to do this weekend, why not check out The Late Shows? A cultural crawl that includes everything from candle making workshops to musical performances to, um, a collective scream event, this takes place in and around Ouseburn, and there’s something for every taste.

Creative opportunities at Live

Live Theatre is currently offering a raft of creative opportunities for writers, directors and performers. The biggest of these is the chance to become Writer in Residence, which offers a £4,000 bursary and six-month residency. There’s also a free playwriting course, and the chance to take part in Live Writes and the Unearthed Scratch Night or a chance to preview Fringe shows. Some of these deadlines are very soon, so be sure to check out the talent page.

Play-reading group at Alphabetti

A new offering from the theatre is this free play-reading group, which gives aspiring / current playwrights (or just those interested in the form) the chance to read and analyse plays, kicking off with The Inheritance. Unfortunately, the limits of the building mean this isn’t fully accessible – it takes place upstairs and there’s no lift – so do check with the venue if you have access concerns.

What I have been reading

I love the idea behind The Beheading Game by Rebecca Lehmann. Anne Boleyn wakes up after her execution, miraculously alive and bent on avenging her death and securing the future of her child, Elizabeth. I found the novel a little meandering at times, but I liked its presentation of Anne as a flawed, complex woman realising a little too late what a monster she married. There’s also a sweet, tentative queer love story in there.

[Image description: The Beheading Game]

I also was excited to contribute to this piece by Natasha Tripney, looking at boredom in theatre:

Café Europa

Being boring: On the experience of being bored in the theatre

In a change of pace this week I wanted to reflect on the experience of being bored in the theatre, so I spoke to a group of UK and European critics about the occasions when this is happened to them. Is there a distinction between work that is boring and work that is tedious? Can a boring show reward the audience in other ways? Are there worse things tha…

Read more

2 months ago · 20 likes · 2 comments · Natasha Tripney

Anyway, thanks again for reading – please do share with your friends! Every new subscriber really does give me a boost. And remember if you want to support my writing but a paid subscription isn’t for you (times are hard, I get it!), you can buy me a one-off Ko-fi or buy one of my books.

Remember: everything included is my personal preference / opinion, and while I strive to be accurate, I always advising checking with the relevant venue.

Hello, and welcome to my Substack. Remember if you want to support my writing, you can do so by becoming a paid subscriber, buying me a one-off Ko-fi or buying one of my books. Or all of my books.

[Image description: promo image for The Bridesmaid Blues]

Apologies for the radio silence - unfortunately my short stay in hospital morphed into a week in the critical care High Dependency Unit followed by a few days on a surgery ward, so all my plans got slightly trashed. Therefore I’m heading into the bank holiday weekend with what I hope is a fun read - I shared this story a couple of years ago and the reaction was actually pretty mind-blowing (apparently LOTS of you relate), so I hope recent joiners enjoy reading anew and old readers maybe revisit.

Hopefully normal service will resume next week, depending on my ability to sit at a laptop for any length of time…

If, unlike me, you are not stuck in the house recovering from major surgery on this lovely weekend, you might want to check out Gateshead International Festival of Theatre, which has a packed schedule of goodies starting today.

The Daily Edit

She’s smiling, doesn’t want to be. Still, it’s easier than arguing, so Wendy swallows a bunch of words she has trained herself not to say and forces a grin, head ducked as she passes the catcaller, thinking what do you mean, it might never happen? You’re yelling at me. It just did.

Wendy’s late. Can’t walk fast in these shoes, office-appropriate though heels are. Her fingers burn against her black coffee from Pret, always too hot; she keeps meaning to ask for a splash of cold water but there’s always a queue, so she doesn’t like to impose. Hustling to the meeting, she follows her team – six junior women, two senior men – into the conference room.

Croissants on the table and Damien and Jonathan tuck right in, already talking through crumbs. The usual anxious glances as the women wait to see if anyone else will crack. Finally, Pippa, whose youth-fuelled metabolism has yet to desert her, reaches for one, so Lacey follows suit, tearing the pastry into small pieces, careful not to drop flakes on the dry-clean-only silk of her blouse. Talia pours coffee, joking ‘I’ll be mother!’, like one of the juniors always does, pretending that seniority not sex is the reason. But when she turns away from the guys there’s a set to her face that makes Wendy think when she’s boss, those boys will be pouring their own.

Taking notes without being asked to, Wendy tries not to show how these voices grate, with their polish and their poshness and their privilege and poise. Hard to believe publishing was her fantasy job, back in the bedroom of the Sunderland council house where she dreamed of cocktail parties with famous authors, of feeling at home in places she’d only ever seen on TV. This job was a lucky fluke, maternity cover for someone who had, she was sniffily informed at the interview, ‘gotten herself pregnant’. (Outspoken as she naturally was, even Wendy knew not to point out that someone else had likely also been involved in the pregnancy). Once in the door – learning to soften the Northern vowels that people mocked or couldn’t understand – it seemed too much effort for them to replace her, but by then the dream had soured.

Wendy had imagined bringing brave new voices into the world, but mainly she works with spreadsheets. She discovered not a landscape rich with creativity, but one where connections mattered more than talent and the same old people published the same old stories aimed at the same old audience. Her enthusiasm had been eroded as thoroughly as her accent, both resurfacing only rarely, fuelled by anger or cheap wine.

The usual lunch-time debate on where to eat, because someone’s always on some diet. Wendy brings in sandwiches, can’t understand how all these women on entry-level publishing salaries can eat out every day, though of course she can understand it really, it’s the same way they can all live in West London and go skiing every winter. She offers the convenient lie of work – London’s always-acceptable excuse – and stays at her desk with her Tupperware. She’s glad of the new girl Neela, who’s been lunching on 30-calorie cup-a-soups since she joined, gritting her teeth through the ‘Why diet? I’d love a booty like yours!’ comments from the Knightsbridge blondes, ignoring the touch of Croydon they put in their voices when they say it and pretending she hasn’t heard the ‘diversity hire’ whispers. Wendy wants to think they are natural allies, she and this other outsider, but isn’t sure Neela would agree, so mutual suspicion keeps their relationship cordial but cool. Still, she’s happy for even this camaraderie, and wonders if she should comment on the fact that Neela has started straightening her hair.

An afternoon of Saskia making personal calls that she somehow – Wendy knows how – gets away with, being the daughter of some friend of the boss with no fear of being disciplined, because how can you threaten to sack someone who doesn’t need a job? First to fiancé Nathaniel, a lengthy one-sided conversation when she does little but murmur agreement, then a follow up to a friend, where she loudly dissects all the ways that his call annoyed her. Nathaniel is something in finance; he buys Saskia lots of presents but never makes her laugh. The girls in the office coo over each gift and ignore that he’s about as much of a catch as a cold sore.

“Oops, coming through!” says the man who walks into her with a plate of canapes, expecting her to move out of his way. Wendy forces a smile because he’s some money guy who knows one of the editors and managed to swing an invite to this launch. Wondering again why it’s always rich people who get free things, she tries to make conversation with a suit who can’t decide whether he should be looking down her top or over her shoulder, sizing up the room for better options. She swallows cheap fizz and thinks about how her feet hurt and she hates this dress, bought in the sale for work events and usually worn twice before cleaning. It’s just out of the dry cleaner’s plastic and some bloke has already spilled salsa on it. She pretended not to mind.

She never admits it, but Wendy wanted to be an author, though school said that was an impossible goal for a benefits-family girl like her. Good enough at English to maybe be a teacher, they said, which in itself was a dazzling ambition at her comprehensive. She never writes anything longer than an Instagram caption now, so instead she goes to work-related book parties and spends an hour listening to three different men tell her about their novels. Writers they may be, but none of them know how to use a question mark.

Drunk lads on the tube bookend her day with another invocation to be cheerful, so she offers them a placatory grimace, her fake smile the price of a harassment-free journey home. By the time she opens the door to her flat, the scream is building to a swell in her chest. She drowns it with more wine, not wanting to wake her flatmates, and goes to sleep with it rasping at the back of her throat.

[Image description: copies of Dark Dates, Wolf Night, Angel Falls and Blood Burns]

Anyway, thanks again for reading – please do share with your friends! Every new subscriber really does give me a boost. And remember if you want to support my writing but a paid subscription isn’t for you (times are hard, I get it!), you can buy me a one-off Ko-fi or buy one of my books.

Remember: everything included is my personal preference / opinion, and while I strive to be accurate, I always advising checking with the relevant venue

The Prodigal Geordie sends notes from the North East is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

First: another break. Sorry, folks! But I am hopefully getting my surgery soon so will likely take a couple of weeks off.

[Image description: The illuminated ‘Lovely’ sign from the Northern Stage bar / foyer]

New season at Northern Stage

The new season for Northern Stage has been announced, and it feels like the strongest the theatre has had in a while. There are some returning hits – Laura Lindow’s reimagining of The Snow Queen was first staged at the theatre in 2019, and is being retooled for its return, when it will be directed by Natalie Ibu. But lots of new stuff!

Jane Eyre is a perennial fave of mine, so I’m excited that Sally Cooke’s adaptation is coming to the theatre in November as part of a tour. This is a Mercury Theatre Colchester, Rose Theatre Kingston and Storyhouse Chester co-production, in association with Northern Stage and is directed by Winner of the 2025 RTST Sir Peter Hall Director Award Lily Dyble.

Another classic coming in autumn is a new production of Othello, directed by Anthony Almeida. I admit this isn’t my favourite Shakespeare, but this co-production (led by Northern Stage with HOME Manchester and Citizens Theatre, in association with Royal & Derngate Northampton) sets the action in 1980s Britain, which sounds like an interesting angle.

As a former Glasgow resident, I’m obviously pleased to see the reopened Citizens get back into production (still gutted I haven’t managed to get there yet); I’m also pleased to see that Northern Stage has teamed up with A Play, a Pie and a Pint to bring new writing to Newcastle. This is another source of shame for me: I usually spend a few weeks in Glasgow each year, staying literally around the corner from Òran Mór theatre, which hosts A Play, a Pie and a Pint, and I have yet to manage seeing anything. (OK, full disclosure: I am a bit weird about eating in this context and worry about my ability to manage to pay sufficient attention to a pint, a pie and a play all at the same time – something’s gotta give, and it’ll likely be something that I drop all over my clothing).

I saw Jack Rooke’s acclaimed Good Grief in Brighton back in the day, so it’ll be interesting to see it a decade or so on.

I’m also curious to see Tim Foley’s ghost story, It Walks Around The House at Night, which was recently at ARC Stockton as part of its tour.

I’ve seen work by Dyad Productions before – they did a one-woman Elizabeth 1 show that I saw at Washington Arts Centre – so I’m also keen to see their spooky seasonal offering Christmas Gothic.

I’m less familiar with the work of Apphia Campbell, but I very much like the sound of Black is the Color of My Voice, which is inspired by the life of Nina Simone and comes to Northern Stage as part of a tour.

I’ll be talking more about upcoming shows, of course, but you can check out the new season here.

Split Ends at Alphabetti

I’m hoping to see the new show by Australian performer Claudia Shnier when it lands in Alphabetti in May as part of a wider tour. Split Ends looks at OCD and coercive relationships, and has already been lauded at Edinburgh, Camden and Brighton.

OCD is one of those conditions that people don’t really take seriously – we’ve all heard someone blithely announcing they are ‘a bit OCD’ (or done it ourselves) because of a liking for neatness or a need to check the oven is off five times before they leave the house (that’s not just me, right?). But genuine OCD can be a horribly debilitating condition: I have close friends who have it, and sharing a flat with someone who had OCD gave me a ground-zero experience of how serious its impact can be. So, I’m all for a show that gives insight into how it affects people, and also sheds light on the often-misunderstood nature of coercive control.

What I have been watching

High Potential (on Disney+) is one of my favourite new shows. Based on a French show, this has ‘high potential IQ’ single mother Morgan help the police solve crimes using her offbeat approach and stellar brain. On the one hand, its ‘clever loner helps cops’ premise is hardly original, but it’s made compelling by a great cast (not only lead Caitlin Olson, but character actors such as Judy Reyes) and some sharp writing. Season 2 ended with a corker of a finale, so if you’ve missed this so far you have plenty of fun to catch up on.

Speaking of season 2 of female-led shows, the new season of Deadloch just landed on Prime. It took me a while to get into season 1, because it was very shouty, but it calmed down into a gripping ‘murder in a small town’ mystery with a comedic edge. Season 2 has the same problem – I felt like the first few episodes were just people shouting at each other – but again settles into a gripping story. It’s also nice to see a show that has a lesbian protagonist, which still feels rarer than it should be.

It’s perhaps weird that one of the shows that’s most reflecting the real world right now is a superhero show, but Daredevil: Born Again continues to feel like it was ripped out of the headlines. Vincent D’Onofrio’s Fisk is much smarter than Trump (not hard, I suspect) but channels the same fierce egotism, and it’s tough not to see ICE in the militarised cops that enforce his draconian rule. There’s also plenty of familiar faces – Jessica Jones is set to make an appearance, with hints in the press that Luke Cage might also. I still miss Foggy, mind.

[Image description: Superman by Larry Tye]

What I have been reading

Never let it be said I don’t like variety in my reading material. I finished a couple of novels this week that couldn’t have been more different. Bored Gay Werewolf by Tony Santorella is a fun take on the werewolf myth, while Good Girl by Aria Aber is a beautifully written and intensely felt story of a child of immigrants losing herself in the Berlin club scene. I enjoyed both books – though neither quite hit the spot as much as I hoped, which to be fair might be more on me than them since I just kept feeling way too old for the hedonistic but aimless lives the protagonists had. But I also felt neither quite had the narrative propulsion to keep me as engaged as I want to be in a novel.

On the non-fiction side, I finally got round to reading Larry Tye’s history of Superman. This book has some sentimental value for me – humble brag time – as I was given it by a friend who worked for DC when I got given a tour of their New York offices. (This was total ‘kid in a candy store’ moment for me: I went away with armfuls of comics and books, only limited by the luggage restrictions of trying to get it all home). I’m not actually a big Supes fan – delighted as I was to see their HQ, I was always more of a Marvel girl (though I did mostly enjoy the new James Gunn iteration when I watched it the other week). But this was a fascinating look at the character’s cultural history, and the legal wranglings that have plagued his ownership almost from the start.

This week’s Substack rec:

Another friend - hey, it’s not my fault all my pals are talented - but having written a (giant!) book about Prince, former music journalist John McKie has also started a Substack that is worth your time:

Anyway, thanks again for reading – please do share with your friends! Every new subscriber really does give me a boost. And remember if you want to support my writing but a paid subscription isn’t for you (times are hard, I get it!), you can buy me a one-off Ko-fi or buy one of my books.

Remember: everything included is my personal preference / opinion, and while I strive to be accurate, I always advising checking with the relevant venue.

It’s a while since I did any cross-stitch, but I was inspired by a rewatch of Interview With the Vampire (in anticipation of The Vampire Lestat coming in June, which I am ridiculoulsy excited about):

[Image description: cross-stitch on red fabric: be all the beautiful things you are and be them without apology]

Being a local critic

This week started off with a delightful surprise – after giving a really lovely speech at the Live Playwriting Awards last week, where she presented my award, Lyn Gardner wrote a typically thoughtful piece in The Stage about the importance of regional critics, in which I was given a namecheck.

While Lyn articulates this better than I ever could, it did make me think about why regional critics matter. In part, this is just logistics: the days of extensive national arts coverage are behind us, so on-the-ground critics are often the only ones covering local shows.

Most national publications are struggling with a small pool of freelancers and even smaller budgets, so they don’t have the resources to send reviewers to everything they’d like to cover. Having someone on (or at least vaguely near) the spot can help, because it at least takes travel costs out of the equation and allows a publication to cover something that might not get reviewed if train fares and hotel bills had to be allocated. (I feel guilty, sometimes, if I have to turn something down for The Stage, because I know if I can’t cover it, the likelihood is it won’t get covered, at least until it goes to London or somewhere they have another reviewer based).

But there are also wider benefits to local criticism. Being embedded in an ecosystem allows for a much deeper understanding of it. You get to watch people’s careers develop (and feel weirdly proud of seeing it happen!). When I saw the Royal Court co-production The Bounds at Live Theatre, I was already familiar with the cast: I’d seen and been impressed by Ryan Nolan and Lauren Waine in solo shows at Northern Stage and Alphabetti, respectively. I was less familiar with Soroosh Lavasani, but I’d seen him in a smaller role in a Customs House show. (I’d also seen writer Stewart Pringle’s work in London and York). That can’t help but bring an extra layer to the experience.

It’s also fascinating to watch companies or shows develop. I’ve written before about seeing Gerry & Sewell in multiple iterations: from a plucky three-hander Fringe show at Laurels to a rowdy banger at Live, to a polished main stage show at the Theatre Royal (unfortunately, health issues and train fares stopped me seeing it when it transferred to London, which I am still sad about.) I saw Rachel Stockdale’s Fat Chance in development at Live, then the finished version at Northern Stage, and I was already familiar with the actor through multiple scratch nights via her work with Squiggle Productions. It was fascinating seeing both show and performer progress.

Because that’s also the important part of being a local critic: it can’t just be about the big shows. Sure, it’s great to get the glitzy press night invites and free wine, and you know I love an excuse to bring out the sequins. But it’s also about shelling out a tenner to sit on uncomfortable seats in a room above a pub and watch a scratch night. It’s about taking a punt on a weird-sounding show when there’s you and five other people in the audience, most of whom are related to the cast. It’s about seeing shows and actors at their most unpolished, because later down the line you might get to see a more polished version and get bragging rights for seeing it first. It’s about supporting less conventional venues, because theatre shouldn’t just be about dedicated buildings. Art can and should happen everywhere.

Since moving back to Newcastle, I’ve seen performances in dozens of places, from pubs to castles to churches and community halls, from social clubs to schools. Sure, I’ve sat through some mediocre stuff, but I’ve also seen kernels of creativity flourish in real time in a way that simply wouldn’t be possible if all I went to see was the glossy headline shows. That, to me, is what being a local critic means.

You can read Lyn’s article here, or read the piece I wrote with fellow local critics for Exeunt here:

Exeunt

'It feels like punching a pal'

Fergus Morgan, Edinburgh…

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a year ago · 10 likes · 1 comment · Exeunt

Ensemble ‘84

Speaking of watching companies develop, I was delighted to be able to review not only Ensemble ‘84’s high profile debut (a Lee Hall translation of Mother Courage) but its follow up, local history piece Pits, People and Players. So I am really hoping to see the company’s latest production, The Tragicall Historie of Hamlet - Shakespeare’s First Quarto in May. While it’s a bit of a faff to get to if you don’t drive, the company’s HQ in Horden (a converted church) is a lovely venue, and it’s great to see grassroots theatre with such ambition.

My theatre diary

Having just said it’s not about big shows, I am excited to have some major shows lined up for the next couple of months. Little Shop of Horrors is one of Northern Stage’s tentpole shows. A co-production with Derby Theatre, this is sure to be a great night out. (Fun fact: I actually saw Rocky Horror star Richard O’Brien in a production of this back when Northern Stage was Newcastle Playhouse. Because, yes, I am old).

Live Theatre’s spring show is a bit of a coup: Astell and Woolf is a new show by Shelagh Stephenson, about Geordie feminist Mary Astell meeting Virginia Woolf in the afterlife.

Next week, I am off to see Amanda Whittington’s The Thrill of Love at The People’s Theatre, which tells the story of Ruth Ellis, the last woman to be hanged in England. I’ve been interested in Ellis since the 1985 Miranda Richardson film Dance with a Stranger, which I saw as a teen (because, as mentioned, I am old), so I’m keen to see how this plays out on stage.

[Image description: Metaphysical Animals by Clare Mac Cumhaill and Rachael Wiseman]

What I have been reading

After a bit of a fallow period, I seem to be on a reading binge at the moment. My current reads are an eclectic pile of fiction and non-fiction. One particularly niche read is Metaphysical Animals by Clare Mac Cumhaill and Rachael Wiseman, which tells the story of four female philosophers: Elizabeth Anscombe, Mary Midgley, Philippa Foot, and Iris Murdoch. This has a North East connection twice over – Mac Cumhaill lectures at Durham, and Mary Midgley lived in Newcastle. I must admit I expected this to be just an ‘events of their lives’ biography but it engages with the women’s philosophy in a surprisingly meaty way. I studied philosophy myself, so it was exciting to revisit themes I used to be so familiar with.

On a very different note, Nick de Semlyen’s Last Action Heroes focuses on 8 titans of action movies that changed the genre forever: Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Chuck Norris, Jackie Chan, Dolph Lundgren, Steven Seagal, Jean-Claude Van Damme and Bruce Willis. Full of celebrity gossip, but also insightful about the nature of filmmaking and tapped into the culture of the time (and generally sympathetic to its subjects, Seagal aside, even at their most excessive - though it turns out Chuck Norris was actually a great guy*) this was immensely readable.

*According to this book. I literally know nothing else about him.

What to read online

I often recommend Substacks, but this week it’s a blog: my lovely friend Lori’s splendidly named Medway She Wrote is focused on local history in and around her adopted hometown of Kent. Which might seem limiting if, like me, you couldn’t really give a stuff about Kent, but Lori is such an engaging writer I often find myself sucked into her well-researched articles, which cover everything from building follies to military deserters.

Anyway, thanks again for reading – please do share with your friends! Every new subscriber really does give me a boost. And remember if you want to support my writing but a paid subscription isn’t for you (times are hard, I get it!), you can buy me a one-off Ko-fi or buy one of my books.

Remember: everything included is my personal preference / opinion, and while I strive to be accurate, I always advising checking with the relevant venue.

[Image description: a plaque for Outstanding Contribution to North East Theatre: Tracey Sinclair on a pink leopard print background, because of course]

Live Theatre North East Playwriting Awards

Last night was the second annual Live Theatre Playwriting Awards, and it was a very exciting night for me – I won an award!

I honestly can’t express what an honour it was to be recognised for my Outstanding Contribution to North East Theatre. After what has been by any measure a very rocky start to the year for me, this would have been a lovely thing anyway, but what really put the gloss on it was the fact that the legendary critic Lyn Gardner – who is one of my personal heroes, and was one of this year’s judges – presented the award. Lyn is famed for her eloquence and insight, and to have that deployed on your behalf is an incredible feeling (I joked that I wanted a copy of her speech to be read at my funeral). Lyn also raised some valid points about how London-centric theatre criticism is, and only getting more so, a fact she is genuinely and rightfully angry about.

There was a fair whack of righteous anger seamed through the night, perhaps inevitably in today’s climate. Live AD Jack McNamara hosted, and was a witty and funny host, but got the biggest cheers for his barbs at billionaire culture, and a rallying cry for art in dark times.

There were also interviews with creatives talking about the big shows in Live’s new season, so it was good to get a preview of coming attractions and give us something to look forward to.

While last year’s awards focused on the playwrighting awards, this year there was a broader sweep, and the night felt better and more inclusive for it. There was also a pleasingly wide sense of what it means to be a North East artist, and that it doesn’t just apply to those who were born here. Diverse voices make our arts richer, and while not everyone comes to the North East by choice, we should welcome the talents and perspective they bring. So it was great to see the Spirit of the North East Award given (by Jimmy Nail, no less) to Ukrainian theatre makers Ivanna Nitsak and Volodymyr Piterov for their play ‘Silence’, and to see Hamzeh Al Hussien get the Adopt a Playwright award for his new show, The Entertainer, developed with long-term collaborator Amy Golding. I loved Al Hussien’s debut Penguin, which told the story of his sometimes-tortuous journey to Byker via refugee camps. He’s a performer of rare charm and energy, so I’m already classing The Entertainer as a must-see.

Talking eloquently about balancing heritages, winner of the Residency award Milethia Rachel Thomas’s play Amazing Grace looks at the human cost of the Windrush scandal, and this also sounds like one to watch.

The actual playwriting awards are split into one for those under-26 and one for those over. There ended up being two winners for the younger prize – Ben Gettins for his play Fiddle and Abby J Walker for The Hanging Room, and excerpts were performed from both. I’m familiar with Gettins as an actor, so am impressed that he is a talented writer too! Winner of the main prize was Andrew Thompson, for Not a Happy Love Song. Can’t wait to see all of these on stage!

A highlight of the night was the Honorary Award, which was presented to local legend Ali Pritchard, an announcement that brought many in the audience to their feet. I honestly can’t think of a more deserving winner – no one has had more impact on the Newcastle arts scene than Ali, though his tenure at Alphabetti, so it was great to see this recognised.

But the best thing about the night was how inspiring it felt. More than one person told me they felt buoyed by the air of optimism and community, that instead of professional jealousy there was a sense of communal celebration.

And personally, as a critic, while Lyn’s speech was a definite high point, I also treasure the moment a man in the audience came up to me and said he not only went to see things I recommended because he trusted my opinions, but that he often trusted my reviews to clarify and interpret what he’d already seen on stage – and I can’t think of a higher compliment than that.

(Hopefully I have covered everything – apologies if I missed anything or got anything wrong, I’m still in shock).

[Image description: Tracey in a sparkly dress on stage with Lyn Gardner and Jack McNamara]

Help shape a play at ARC!

I’ve long been a fan of Rachel Stockdale, whose play Fat Chance I saw both in preview at Live and on its outing at Northern Stage after a successful Ed Fringe run. So I was interested to hear about her new play, Mother?

Stockdale is running free sessions for parents and primary caregivers at ARC Stockton to inform the piece. According to the press release, “The sessions are designed to be welcoming and accessible, with lunch provided, babies welcome, and childcare available for older children”, so if nothing else they offer a chance to get out of the house and talk to people! The idea behind them is to collect stories that inform the play and a related exhibition which will run in June. There are workshops and informal drop-ins to maximise involvement which start this week. You can find out more here.

Speaking of Stockton, this weekend is Stockton Calling, an all-day multivenue music festival that features a whole load of artists I’m not cool enough to have heard of but I’m sure you all would enjoy.

ARC actually has some great shows coming up, including Lois-Amber Toole’s Post-Traumatic Slay Disorder, which deals with PTSD, and Alys Williams and Company’s The Light House, which looks at love and struggle. Sunny Side combines dance, theatre and spoken word to look at the lives of young men who feel isolated and discarded.

What I have been reading

Having finished Ministry of Truth last week, which talked about Orwell’s wartime stint at the BBC, I remembered I had Auntie’s War by Edward Stourton sitting on my shelves, and dug that out to see if it talked about the same thing from a different angle. I’m glad I did – it’s a fascinating look at how the Second World War changed broadcasting (and how broadcasting changed the war) and cemented the BBC’s reputation at home and abroad, despite its many missteps and conflicts both internal and external.

[Image description: Auntie’s War by Edward Stourton]

I’m on a bit of a history binge at the moment, and am also enjoying The Notebook: A History of Thinking on Paper by Roland Allen. As a stationery fiend who panics if I have fewer than 20 notebooks in the house at any one time (I am not exaggerating) I am finding this history of notebooks and their use absolutely fascinating. I must admit I had never given a second thought about how the development and spread of paper (and then paper notebooks) impacted everything from art to accounting, but I am enjoying finding out more.

Want to support theatre writing? (Not just mine. But also, sorta mine)

One of the things Lyn talked about in her speech was the dearth of national coverage for theatre, and she’s not wrong: in a climate where newspapers are cutting arts coverage across the board, so many are being driven to sites like this. So I once again say it’s worth - if you can afford it - subscribing to those keeping the flame alive. This includes Exeunt:

Exeunt

Inventive, in-depth, fierce and playful writing about theatre - now straight to your inbox. The new home for Exeunt Magazine.

There’s also legacy media, the leading publication being The Stage, which might not be perfect but offers more national coverage than anyone else and so deserves your support.

Anyway, thanks again for reading – please do share with your friends! Every new subscriber really does give me a boost. And remember if you want to support my writing but a paid subscription isn’t for you (times are hard, I get it!), you can buy me a one-off Ko-fi or buy one of my books.

Remember: everything included is my personal preference / opinion, and while I strive to be accurate, I always advising checking with the relevant venue.

[Image description: Poster for I, Daniel Blake]

I, Daniel Blake at Northern Stage

I think I can count on one hand (maybe two) the number of 5-star reviews I have given for The Stage in my time reviewing, so I was interested to see if one of the few shows I’d rated that highly stood up to a second viewing.

Depressingly, Northern Stage’s I, Daniel Blake – returning for its third run, after two sell out previous visits and national tours – remains as relevant today as it was the first time I saw it.

Written by the man who originated the role on film, Dave Johns, and directed by Mark Calvert, this powerful adaptation has been updated slightly: the quotes from politicians that are interspersed throughout now include Keir Starmer and Kemi Badenoch, reinforcing the cheerless message that no matter the party, no matter who is in charge, the rhetoric is the same: toxic trolling that pits ‘hardworking families’ against scroungers lounging on benefits that the rest of us pay for.

The play, in contrast, reminds us that behind the headlines are actual people. Blake (David Nellist) is a man who has worked all his life and tried to do his best, derailed by a heart attack that according to his doctor has left him unable to work, but according to an uncaring system still isn’t enough to qualify him for the benefits he needs. He befriends Katie (Jessica Johnson) and her daughter Daisy (Jodie Wild), who have been moved from London and their already thin support network to Newcastle by a bureaucracy that sees people as simply things to be slotted in where convenient, rather than human beings with actual lives, roots and communities.

Nellist, Johnson and Wild are compelling as the heart of the play, well-supported by Kema Sikazwe as Blake’s friend China, and Micky Cochrane and Janine Leigh playing an assortment of hard-faced government officials.

The play is unflinching in its portrayal of poverty and the dehumanisation of dealing with a system that reduces people to ‘end-users’ that represent nothing but tick-box statistics. That it manages to not be unbearably downbeat is testament to writer, director and cast: there’s a warmth, humour and humanity to the characters that both stops the play feeling like a drudge through misery, while also making the hits land even harder – I found myself in tears more than once, and I wasn’t the only one.

I might have hoped, when I first saw the show, that a Labour Government would render it a historical curiosity. In fact, in a rising Reform nation where AI is moving us ever more towards people-as-data-points, it feels more urgent and relevant than ever. That 5-star review? I’m standing by it.

The play runs until 4 April at Northern Stage and is touring.

Other shows to check out if you enjoyed this:

OK, ‘enjoyed’ might not be the right word. But if you are interested in theatre that looks at the human cost of austerity and the demonisation of parts of our society, I can’t recommend the following enough.

English Touring Theatre’s Museum of Austerity was another 5-star review from me, when I saw it at Live. I usually find things like augmented reality too gimmicky for my taste (also, against my personal taste, as I hate having to wear headphones), so I initially planned to skip this, and only went because The Stage wanted it reviewed.

And God – it was worth it, even though it broke me so much I had to sit down quietly for a good half hour afterwards. Built around the stories of people who died after being failed by the Kafkaesque benefits system – when people with crippling mental health issues are forced to contend with 50-page applications and agoraphobics are expected to attend appointments cities away and you can be sanctioned for missing an appointment even while you are recovering from an assault, all intercut with smug braying from wealthy politicians about how people who are ‘genuinely’ disabled won’t suffer from benefit cuts – it’s a brutal but necessary experience. Sometimes we need to bear witness to things that need changing as a first step to making that change.

Open Clasp Theatre

One thing I love about press nights is the chance to nerd out about theatre with people who love it even more than me. I was chatting to several people involved with one of my favourite theatre companies, Open Clasp, last night, and if you are looking for theatre committed to treating people as people, you couldn’t find a better model.

A feminist theatre company focused on women and girls – importantly, especially these days, inclusive of trans women and non-binary individuals – Open Clasp is a Newcastle-based theatre company that works with its subjects to create plays that shine a light on those too-often overlooked. At the moment this focus is on women in the prison system, though recent plays have also examined the lives of sex workers, and women who have had multiple children removed from their care.

Recent years have seen them create more shows for digital viewing and build up their online archive, so even when they aren’t touring, you may be able to catch some shows online. (You can read more about the company, including how to support their important work, here.)

Live Playwriting Award

Next week marks the ceremony for Live Theatre’s North East Playwriting Award. The finalists have already been announced and include some names whose work I am familiar with (Ben Gettins, Chess Tomlinson) and plenty I am excited to get to know. I was lucky enough to be a judge for last year’s prize, so I know how much time and thought the theatre, readers and judges put into it.

It’s also great that Live is investing in new writing in this way, because sometimes if you don’t have connections in the theatre / literary world, the democracy of just being able to submit a script to an open competition could represent an opportunity you might not otherwise get.

The winners are announced on Tuesday – watch this space!

[Image description: Power and Thrones by Dan Jones]

What I have been reading

I have spent the last couple of weeks powering through Dan Jones’ Power and Thrones, a massive tome on the Middle Ages. Jones writes with a wit and lightness that keeps his subject matter accessible despite its complexity – I’ve read less gripping novels. Glad to have finished it, though, as a 700-page hardback is not for the feeble of wrists.

Since I am clearly in the mood to be depressed, I am also reading Dorian Lynsky’s The Ministry of Truth. Billed as ‘a biography of George Orwell’s 1984’ it places the book in the context of Orwell’s life, writing and reading, and the historical and literary backdrop of its creation. I’m only about halfway through, but so far it’s fascinating.

Anyway, thanks again for reading – please do share with your friends! Every new subscriber really does give me a boost. And remember if you want to support my writing but a paid subscription isn’t for you (times are hard, I get it!), you can buy me a one-off Ko-fi or buy one of my books.

Remember: everything included is my personal preference / opinion, and while I strive to be accurate, I always advising checking with the relevant venue.

I’m returning from my hiatus slightly earlier than expected - yay! Because the surgery I had lined up was postponed due to other health issues - boo! So this is a little shorter than usual as I am easing myself back into real life. But you’ve missed me, right? RIGHT?

Lots to love at Live

I was at Live last week for the press night of Shuggy Boats, so picked up a brochure for the new season – and wow, it’s packed. I’m sure I’ll be talking a lot about it over the coming months, especially as I am *insanely* excited (and slightly nervous) about the fact one of the big shows is an adaptation of seminal TV series Our Friends in The North.

Other big shows include a new comedy from the legendary Shelagh Stephenson, Astell & Woolf, a new play by award-winning playwright Alison Carr, All at Sea (based on the famous ‘canoe man’ case where some guy faked his own death - I can’t remember the details, but I do remember it being all over the news), and a play inspired by the equally newsworthy felling of the Sycamore Gap tree, The Most Famous Tree in the World, by Rory Mullarkey.

But there are also some blink-and-you-miss-‘em gems to catch, so I thought I’d draw your attention to some of them. (You can check out the whole list here).

I’m a big fan of James Rowland, and Team Viking was the first show of his I saw, way back in my Brighton days. This beautiful, gently comic story of friendship, death and loss is one of his strongest works, so do catch it when it comes in June.

I had tickets to see The Gallifrey Cabaret last year, but missed it as I was recovering from surgery (DEJA VU, MUCH?), so had to sit it out on the sofa while my entire timeline filled with praise and photos and gave me serious FOMO. Since I am once again waiting for surgery dates, I haven’t booked it yet – I’m not tempting fate twice! – but, y’know, you guys should totally book.

While my own sojourns to Ed Fringe are limited by my distaste for crowds and being fleeced (insert rant about cost of cheese sandwiches here), I am lucky enough to have my own little crowd of critic friends telling me what shows to keep an eye out for when they tour. (Seriously: make friends with critics. For little more than the cost of a glass of wine you too can have a series of recommendations tailored to your personal taste!)

One such show last year was Emma Frankland’s No Apologies, centred on conceit of Kurt Cobain being trans. It’s more complicated and interesting than that – if you’re intrigued, and you should be, read Natasha Tripney’s thoughts on the piece here:

Café Europa

Edinburgh Fringe round-up: Philosophy of the World, No Apologies, Up Your Ass

Hello from not-Edinburgh. I just left the fringe yesterday having been there for seventeen days and seen 52 shows. You can follow my reviews and those of the rest of The Stage team here - there’s still a week to go and Fergus Morgan will be reviewing until the bitter end. This is the third in my somewhat erratic series of fringe round-ups, in which I at…

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10 months ago · 8 likes · 1 comment · Natasha Tripney

I’m a big fan of theatres staging readings of plays you might have missed (or which rarely get staged outside London) and Live has some great ones lined up. Last year’s mini debbie tucker green festival was a real treat, so I’ll be keen to check out some of the readings programmed for this year, with featured playwrights including Annie Baker and Lenny Henry, and classic plays including The Vagina Monologues and Stones in His Pockets.

I, Daniel Blake returns to Northern Stage

One of my very few 5-star reviews for The Stage (I am famously stingy on these), this hard-hitting and depressingly still-relevant adaptation of the Ken Loach film returns after several sell-out runs in Newcastle and beyond. It opens on Friday and is sure to be popular, so book now.

Speaking of Northern Stage, I saw Biff to the Future there last week, which was a lot of fun.

There’s obviously a raft of these ‘one-man does a movie / TV series’ shows out there, so no points for originality, but this is an entertaining and undemanding night out, and honestly in today’s world sometimes isn’t that just what you need? It’s touring, including going to Ed Fringe, giving you plenty of chances to catch it.

[Image description: A Place Both Wonderful and Strange]

Where I have been eating

I haven’t been out much so far this year (sob), but I did manage to meet a friend for lunch on Saturday, which gave me a chance to revisit an old favourite.

I’m old enough to remember when Super Natural was one of the town’s few veggie eateries, an unfussy café tucked away near Central Library. Now a fairy-light bedecked Instagram-friendly haven a couple of minutes’ walk from Central Station, this is a great place to get lunch or early dinner or even a cocktail. It does (early) Sunday brunch and lunchtime Sunday roast, as well as a decent selection of veggie / vegan dishes through the week. The portions are substantial: I admit the ‘fish’ (battered tofu) and chips utterly defeated me, but I gave it my best efforts…

(Note, it’s closed on Monday and Tuesday).

What I have been reading

The one thing being stuck at home / in hospital waiting rooms is good for is reading. I promised myself I’d read more books in translation this year, as well as more women of colour, and I’m not doing too badly on that front. Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 by Cho Nam-Joo (translated by Jamie Chang) looks at the life of an ‘ordinary’ woman navigating the Korean patriarchy and though its style takes a little getting used to – it feels part novel, part social textbook in places, littered with facts and statistics – it’s worth reading.

Although I would be hard pressed to recall any but the most famous moments of Twin Peaks, I do remember just how obsessed I was with it when it came out: rearranging social events so as not to miss an episode in those pre-streaming / recording days, the conversations afterwards, not sleeping because I was scared Bob was going to appear at the end of my bed. So I was fascinated by A Place Both Wonderful and Strange: The Extraordinary Untold History of Twin Peaks. Scott Meslow takes an in-depth look at the making of the TV show, film and reboot, in a book that clearly admires the show but isn’t afraid to be critical.

With the BBC series The Other Bennet Sister just landing, I wanted to read the book it was based on first, and while I thought Janice Hadlow’s novel could have been a little tighter – the romantic complications went on a bit long for my liking – she does a great job of capturing Austen’s world.

What I have been watching (and not watching)

Alas, I found the TV series The Other Bennet Sister really disappointing. While the book’s angle is very much about the tricky tightrope walked by a genteel woman of certain expectations but limited prospects – making Mary, however annoying she can occasionally be, facing a genuine dilemma, the TV series veers much more into comedy, making it little more of the tale of a frumpy duckling who (sorta) finds her inner swan. On the evidence I saw – I got three episodes in before I abandoned it – most of the plot of the book has been jettisoned (I was particularly annoyed by the fact that a major plot point in the book was Mary’s horror at the idea of being forced to become a governess (a serious step down in status) but the TV show has her merrily popping off to London to become governess to her uncle’s kids with nary a grumble…)

I’ve struggled to watch anything recently, probably due to a combination of my own mood and a weariness at the world. I tried to get into season 2 of post-apocalyptic show Paradise (I really enjoyed season 1) before realising the news was apocalyptic enough, and Nicole Kidman’s new show Scarpetta lasted until the first dead, naked and mutilated woman showed up (i.e. five minutes) before I realised I’m sick of stories based on murdered naked women, too. Which cuts out a surprising amount of TV – I had a similar problem with Cross, despite the fact I love the show’s lead, Aldis Hodge.

Still, at least the new series of Sort Your Life Out is back, and the only thing that makes me worry about is the state of my cupboards…

[Image description: The Other Bennet Sister]

Anyway, thanks again for reading – please do share with your friends! Every new subscriber really does give me a boost. And remember if you want to support my writing but a paid subscription isn’t for you (times are hard, I get it!), you can buy me a one-off Ko-fi or buy one of my books.

Remember: everything included is my personal preference / opinion, and while I strive to be accurate, I always advising checking with the relevant venue.

[Image description: Think you’ve got problems? I’m dead and I still have to do this shitty job]

First off, apologies for a lack of newsletter last week – I was derailed by an unexpected hospital stay - thank you, NHS! On a related note, I will be pausing this for a couple of weeks but hope that normal service will be resumed by the end of March. Thanks for your patience and do feel free to send good vibes my way. Feel like I need ‘em…

Fun stuff coming up at Northern Stage

Annoyingly, this means I will most likely miss a lot of the stuff I have booked – no Biff to the Future for me! – so you all need to go see lots of shows to make up for it and report back.

While Noughts and Crosses is Northern Stage’s big show, there’s lots of short run stuff coming in March / April that you should consider. Poet Luke Wright is sure to be a sell out, so book now if you haven’t already, and Glitch: The True Story of the Post Office Scandal is sure to be worth your time.

Anna May Wong is an actress with a fascinating legacy, so Don’t Call Me China Doll, Diana Feng’s one-woman show in which a modern actress finds herself back in time in Wong’s body sounds really interesting. It’s only on for one night, so get booking.

Also just one night, Mandala Theatre’s Incarcerating Eve looks at the oppression of the feminine through history and makes the case that now is the time to unleash it.

Not coming till May, but it’s also worth shouting out A Star Wars improv show, the One Man Made Up Movie.

You can read all about upcoming shows here.

Live Theatre

I’ve already mentioned the fabulous sounding Shuggy Boats – I love that I had forgotten that phrase even existed and as soon as I heard it, it activated me like a sleeper agent – and while Live hasn’t announced its full season yet, there are already some treats available.

The one I am really hoping to see is Hidden Biscuit, Ali Pritchard’s new play (co-created with Richie Bow-Grace) about being neurodivergent.

I admit The Fit Prince – coming to you from the team behind Gwyneth Goes Skiing and Diana: The Untold and Untrue Story – sounds like broader comedy that my personal taste, but if you were a fan of those previous shows this should be right up your street.

Ned Blackburn’s An Adequate Abridgement of Boarding School Life as a Homo is billed as ‘life through the lens of a young queer man, navigating Grindr, hyper-masculinity and an institution rife with shame’. Prior to the Thursday night show, the theatre will be hosting an Out of Office LGBTQ+ networking event – you can find details on the website.

Alphabetti

It’s always worth checking Betti’s website because, as well as shows, they host a raft of workshops and events. Standouts in March include a spoken word workshop with local poet / spoken word artist Papi Jeovani, Common Thread with Ilisha Thiru Purcell and the Alphabetti writing workshops.

In terms of shows, Dougie Blaxland’s Our Little Hour tells the story of Walter Tull, a groundbreaking Black footballer who also became the first man of his heritage to be commissioned as an Officer in the British Army.

Jorvik sounds like one of those things you need to experience rather than describe – a ‘bold and immersive Viking experience’. Go on, someone go and tell me what it’s like.

Other shows to book

If you missed The People’s Theatre production of Home, I’m Darling, never fear – The Little Theatre Gateshead offers you a second chance in March.

If seeing Sinners win a raft of awards has given you a taste for a rewatch – which I highly recommend, you get so much out of a second or even third viewing – the Tyneside Cinema is bringing it back to the big screen this weekend.

The cinema is also hosting a number of Iris Prize screenings, including the fabulously titled 300 Lesbians Go to York. It is also showing highlights from BFI Flare, so do check out the programme.

On a very different note, they are also showing a number of 4K restorations of Hong Kong classic action films, including Hard Boiled. I’m gonna come right out and admit I have no idea what a 4K restoration means, but it’s got to be good, yes? (Fun fact: I have a ridiculously in-depth knowledge about any Asian film that was released on DVD during a specific window of time because I used to work for a company that did the subtitles. You don’t ever want to get me started on Old Boy, Memories of Murder, or A Tale of Two Sisters - where I did not only the films but all the DVD boxed set extras - any Sonny Chiba film or anything by John Woo or Wong Kar-wai).

Substacks to check out in my absence

I know, you’ll miss me. You will! But there are some great substacks to check out.

For international and London theatre, no one is doing it like Natasha Tripney:

Café Europa

A weekly newsletter by Natasha Tripney dedicated to European theatre. You can expect a mix of in-depth reviews and profiles of the artists and companies that excite me, plus other stuff.

By Natasha Tripney

For a thoughtful, meditative look at writing, try Shimrit Janes And So We Dance

and so, we dance

Poetry, reflections and words exploring... What stories want to be told? How do we fall in love with a dying world? What lives in the cracks between?

By Shimrit Janes

For London-based theatre reviews, backed up by some really solid knowledge, try Julia Rank:

Julia's Theatre Musings

By Julia Rank

For tales and local history from the North East, try Harry’s Meanderings

Harry's Meanderings

An eclectic mix of offerings that reflect my life in northeast England (and sometimes beyond)

By Harry Watson

And of course for an eclectic range of theatre writing, there’s the fantastic Exeunt:

Exeunt

Inventive, in-depth, fierce and playful writing about theatre - now straight to your inbox. The new home for Exeunt Magazine.

Anyway, thanks again for reading – please do share with your friends! Every new subscriber really does give me a boost. And remember if you want to support my writing but a paid subscription isn’t for you (times are hard, I get it!), you can buy me a one-off Ko-fi or buy one of my books.

Remember: everything included is my personal preference / opinion, and while I strive to be accurate, I always advising checking with the relevant venue.

Boringly, yes, I am still ill, so apologies again for this being quite short and please excuse any typos. I did manage to drag myself off the sofa a couple of times this week, including to take a trip to The People’s Theatre to see Mary Shelley. I went with a friend who hadn’t been before, and who was very taken with the venue, which is nice – I love introducing people to my favourite places!

Mary Shelley at The People’s Theatre

Helen Edmundson’s 2012 play about Frankenstein author Mary Shelley examines her remarkable life and contextualises this against her family (parents political philosopher William Godwin and women’s rights advocate Mary Wollstonecraft, and her sisters Fanny and Jane (later known as Claire, who had a child by Byron).

It’s a complex, thorny and interesting story, and though directors Tracey Lucas and Matthew Hope make a good go of it, the production doesn’t always get to the heart of it as well as it could. The pacing and tone are often uneven, the play sometimes feels choppy and overlong – a tighter edit would have served the story much better, especially the first half, which starts to drag a good 10 minutes before it breaks for the interval.

That’s not to say there’s not plenty to enjoy. The usual People’s Theatre production values have been applied, with Sands Dobson’s imaginative set – oversized books and unfurled scrolls, alongside Wollstonecraft’s tomb – serving the action well, complemented by Linda Girling’s excellent wardrobe.

The cast are universally strong. Holly Stamp is a suitably flawed but spirited Mary, while Ashton Matthews and Minnie Dobson provide solid support as her two very different sisters. Andrew De’Ath convinces as William Godwin, a man who finds his earlier liberalism undermined when financial straits make him more concerned about his reputation and the cost of it being compromised, and Anna Dobson manages the tricky balancing act of making the acerbic Mrs Godwin both entertainingly judgmental but ultimately sympathetic.

Joe Moore is an engaging, foppish Shelley, even if the script can’t seem to quite decide how we should take him: romantic revolutionary or privileged dilettante who happily embraces an idea of freedom that boils down to him getting whatever he wants and abandoning all and any responsibilities or people that bore him? (Of course, he can be both, but the production doesn’t feel like it leaves space for that level of complexity). Even if he is slightly redeemed in the second half, he’s never quite as free of contemporary conventions as he thinks he is - illustrated by the fact that while his estranged wife is alive, he seeks custody of his son and heir, but not his daughter.

(It is perhaps a sign of my age and weariness that I saw their relationship as less a liberating meeting of minds for the ages than a bored and overly bright teenager frustrated enough by her life to fall for a frivolous fuckboy who ditched his pregnant wife and flirts with her sisters, but then I guess if it hadn’t happened, we wouldn’t have science fiction, so I probably shouldn’t complain.)

One important thing to note: there are multiple references to / on-stage portrayals of suicide and attempted suicide, so if that’s not something you’re in a place to deal with, I recommend you avoid. Otherwise, it’s definitely worth checking out if you have any interest in one of literature’s most fascinating women.

[Image description: Mary Shelley programme]

New season at The People’s Theatre

While on the subject of the People’s, their new season is online now and there are lots of treats to catch. Highlights include Lucy Prebble’s A Very Expensive Poison, about the assassination of former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko and Edward Albee’s The Goat, or Who is Silvia (which I saw in London, ages back, starring Jonathan Pryce). I’m also keen to see The Thrill of Love, which tells the story of Ruth Ellis, who I’ve been a little obsessed with since seeing Dance With a Stranger as an impressionable teenager.

The Young People’s Theatre The Trials by Dawn King has a teenage audience putting their elders on trial for what they have done to the planet and is in the studio.

Steven Moffat’s The Unfriend and Simon Stephens’ The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime are both likely to be popular, so I’d get booking.

Candle-making with Hot Wax

One of my resolutions for this year has been to do more workshops, so I was pleased to bag a place at Hot Wax’s Galentines workshop, held at Mother Mercy in Heaton.

Hot Wax is a Newcastle-based candle maker (they have a shop in Ouseburn) that uses eco-friendly candles and focuses on local sourcing and minimum waste.

I’m still not feeling great so I was slightly worried about how I’d get through a workshop but it was actually really low-key: the candle making bit isn’t particularly arduous, and most of the time you’re waiting for your turn to mix and pour your candle, or waiting for it to set, so it’s a good excuse to sit around and chat and enjoy a complimentary cocktail! (The Mother Mercy staff are on hand throughout in case you want to order more…)

The tickets were 40 quid each, which obviously isn’t nothing, but represented great value when you consider the price includes a free drink, the candle and wax melts you make, and they gave us a wee goody bag to take home! You can also buy their ready-made candles at a discount.

Workshops are held at various venues around Newcastle, including the shop, and are unsurprisingly popular and sell out really quickly, so if you fancy trying it, get on their website now (and keep an eye on their Instagram, where they often announce new dates).

[Image description: A Hot Wax candle]

Anyway, thanks again for reading – please do share with your friends! Every new subscriber really does give me a boost. And remember if you want to support my writing but a paid subscription isn’t for you (times are hard, I get it!), you can buy me a one-off Ko-fi or buy one of my books.

Remember: everything included is my personal preference / opinion, and while I strive to be accurate, I always advising checking with the relevant venue.

Another short one this week, due to the by-now-usual combo of illness and deadlines. But hey, we survived January! Go us!

[Image description: Doll and No Love is This y Tracey Sinclair]

Unfortunately, I was too ill to go see Weird at the Theatre Royal last weekend – and from what I heard, I missed a treat! This new musical, based on the story of Macbeth, is apparently very much targeting a ‘Six’ crowd (successfully, too, if the reaction of my friend’s Six-obsessed kid was anything to go by – she loved it). This is a Theatre Royal co-production so is very likely to come back around, so definitely keep your eyes open for its return.

Things to book now

Keep Standing Up is a night of stand up for a good cause – raising funds for Rape Crisis Tyneside & Northumberland. An all-female line up of comedy talent hits the stage on International Woman’s Day (March 8) at the Tyne Theatre and Opera House.

An on-stage version of The Silence of the Lambs sounds like one of those things that could be very good or very, very bad – though you’ll have to wait till it lands at the Theatre Royal in August to find out. I actually rewatched the movie not that long ago, and bits of it stand up well (the spotlight on sexism) and bits of it… really do not (it’s almost impossible not to see it as transphobic) so I feel like any adaptation will need to tread a very careful line.

Coming to Live for one night only in April is Hidden Biscuit, which tells the story of a neurodivergent individual’s journey. The majority of the creative team behind it are neurodivergent, including co-writer and director Ali Pritchard, so the subject is sure to be tackled with sensitivity and thought.

Northern Stage has a returning favourite this month, with Noughts and Crosses, the adaptation of the best-selling Malorie Blackman novel that tackles racism and social division.

If you fancy something a bit different for Valentine’s Day, Alphabetti is hosting Sing in The Name of Love, a singalong with the Girls, Theys and Slays choir. Tickets are only £7 and you can guarantee a friendly, inclusive crowd and good vibes.

If gothic romance is more your speed, next week sees Mary Shelley open at The People’s Theatre, Helen Edmundson’s look at the life of one of our most innovative writers.

What I have been watching

While I’m as superhero fatigued as the next guy, I must admit the premise of Wonder Man, Marvel’s latest TV show, did intrigue me. Yahya Abdul-Mateen II is Simon Williams, an overthinking actor desperate to get the lead in the remake of Wonder Man, a movie franchise he loved as a kid. The drawback? Not only did he just get fired for over-analysing a bit part in American Horror Story, but he also has superpowers – a big no-no in Hollywood after an on-set disaster made superheroes impossible to insure.

The show works best when it’s a low-key satire on Hollywood or a buddy comedy with Simon and his new bestie, Trevor (Ben Kingsley having the time of his life), even if it never quite manages to balance those strands with the superpowered aspects. But overall, I enjoyed it, and it’s the kind of series you can quite easily binge over a night or two.

If you like undemanding procedurals, season 4 of The Lincoln Lawyer lands on Netflix this week. Manuel García-Rulfo is engaging as maverick lawyer Mickey Haller, surrounded by a team you really root for, with each season focusing on solving one major crime.

Anyway, thanks again for reading – please do share with your friends! Every new subscriber really does give me a boost. And remember if you want to support my writing but a paid subscription isn’t for you (times are hard, I get it!), you can buy me a one-off Ko-fi or buy one of my books.

Remember: everything included is my personal preference / opinion, and while I strive to be accurate, I always advising checking with the relevant venue.

A short one this week, as I am in the midst of a big deadline period and I am still – STILL! – recovering from a post-festive lurgy that has me pretty wiped out. (So also: apologies in advance for typos).

But there’s a couple of fun projects I wanted to mention, so here goes.

[Image description: poster for Doppelganger, heavy with text and images]

Credit: poster design by James Dixon, image supplied via press pack

Doppelgänger on BBC and iPlayer

Doppelgänger is part of the new BBC series The Long Story Short series, which aims to promote new screen talent across the UK. The whole line up looks interesting – you can see the episode guide here – but Doppelgänger will be of particular interest to North East readers because it features a host of local creatives and is filmed around Gateshead, Heaton and Hebburn, giving you lots of ‘hey, I know that place!’ chances to shout at the telly.

The writer is Alison Carr, whose work includes the award-winning A Street Like This, which I saw at the Fire Station, and the cast includes Jack Robertson (who recently debuted in the West End production of Gerry & Sewell), Raul Kohli, Sarah Lewis Obuba and Kylie Ann Ford (who has impressed me on stage before) while the dual roles of Josie are played by Sarah Balfour, who I last saw in Dogs on the Metro at Live.

You can catch it on BBC Three on Sunday or iPlayer after that – so why not support some local talent for free!

Shuggy Boats at Live

Live haven’t announced their full new season yet, but one show that sounds worth your time is Shuggy Boats. A new play by Jacquie Lawrence, directed by Fiona Macpherson, this story of ‘chaos, comedy, confrontation and celebration’ features a host of actors you’re probably familiar with, including I, Daniel Blake’s Dave Johns, Phillipa Wilson (who was in The Pitman Painters), Benjamin Storey (who I have seen a ton of times, and always been impressed by) and Soroosh Lavasani, who was in The Bounds. There will also be some on-screen appearances from familiar faces including Denise Welch!

Shuggy Boats runs from 6 March – 21 March.

What I have been reading

My reading resolutions for this year include reading more books in translation, more books by women and more books by people of colour, so I’m hitting a three-fer with Butter, by Asako Yuzuki (translated by Polly Barton) which I am finally getting round to after having it recommended to me about 20 times when it came out.

This tale of a journalist who wants to interview a female serial killer is inspired by a true story but it’s not just retreading true crime - it takes a hard look at Japanese social and work culture, gender roles, misogyny and women’s relationship with food and their bodies. I’m only about a third in so far, but I can see why this is so acclaimed.

[Image description: Butter by Asako Yuzuki]

Anyway, thanks again for reading – please do share with your friends! Every new subscriber really does give me a boost. And remember if you want to support my writing but a paid subscription isn’t for you (times are hard, I get it!), you can buy me a one-off Ko-fi or buy one of my books.

Remember: everything included is my personal preference / opinion, and while I strive to be accurate, I always advising checking with the relevant venue.

[Image description: programme for Agatha Christie: The Mirror Crack’d]

Agatha Christie: The Mirror Crack’d at The People’s Theatre

I have long been a sucker for a crime tale. A good chunk of both my reading and my viewing are crime stories, and yet it’s the one genre I’ve consistently been disappointed by on stage. Certainly, I can think of more bad than good experiences watching adaptations of crime stories in the theatre: novels that lend themselves perfectly to a film or TV series seem to feel cluttered and curtailed on a stage.

So I was pleasantly surprised by The People’s Theatre production of this Christie classic. Rachel Wagstaff’s adaptation is tremendously clever in how it tackles the story. Instead of lots of clunky scene changing and long expositions in fusty drawing rooms, we have characters re-enacting the scenes as they are retold to an injured Miss Marple (Karen Elliott), who is confined for much of the play to sleuthing from her armchair, suffering from a sprained ankle.

This format keeps things brisk and adds both intrigue and humour – stories shift depending on the teller and their perspective, pieces falling into place as we realise just how unreliable some narrators are.

While these days, Marple stories fall squarely into the ‘cosy crime’ category, there’s a touch of acid in the script that never lets us get completely comfortable. There’s a running theme of children and choices – the assumptions we make about those who have them, and those who don’t. The audience is often made complicit: we are encouraged to laugh at the constant rebuffing of the meek Cyril Leigh (Tony Sehgal), who spends much of the play trying to get someone to just listen to him, until we are reminded – right at the end – of the depth and bitterness of his loss and made ashamed of how blithely we dismissed it.

Pacily directed by Sam Hinton, this smart script is served well by the usual elements of a People’s Theatre production. Annelise Clifton’s clever set moves us smoothly between manor house, cottage and film set and Jenny Davison’s wardrobe is divine (I spent much of the play envying aspiring actress Lola Brewster’s (Kristin Clawson) dress). The cast is generally solid (although admittedly, the accents sometimes are not, but that’s always a bit more forgivable in a non-professional production).

Elliott is an engaging Marple, flawed but wise and deeply human. Moira Valentine’s fading movie star has a brittle charm, with Jim Boylan gruffly protective as her husband. Sean Burnside’s Chief Inspector Craddock is the correct mix of stuffy-with-a-softer side, and Maggie Childs is a lot of fun as Jane’s friend Dolly Bantry.

Overall, it all comes together with a neatness Poirot would be proud of, making for a very satisfying show.

Agatha Christie: The Mirror Crack’d runs at The People’s Theatre until January 24.

What I have been watching

If that has put you in the mood for more Christie, you might want to check out the new Netflix miniseries Agatha Christie’s Seven Dials. This Chris Chibnall adaptation boasts a star cast (Martin Freeman, Helena Bonham Carter) and great locations, and while it occasionally feels oddly paced and sometimes even a bit silly – and you definitely get the impression that some of the overseas scenes were included just to be eligible for those countries’ tax breaks – it’s perfect Sunday evening fodder.

What I have been doing

One thing I have been meaning to do for a while is sign up to some workshops. It’s too easy as you get older to decide what your strengths and weaknesses are and not really push past those assumptions.

In the past, I’ve successfully challenged how I think of myself – clumsy, uncoordinated, a bit accident prone – by doing classes that are very physically focused. I did an axe throwing session (much to the terror of my friends, who have listened over the years to my calamitous tales) and while I was, for the most part, hilariously terrible, I also managed not only to hit the bullseye more than once, but split a playing card in half, from a distance, with an axe. I felt like a superhero!

A handful of circus skills classes showed me I am indeed as bad at some things as anticipated (I couldn’t get to grips with the silks for love nor money), but I surprised myself by being OK at the hoop, and by standing up on a trapeze without falling off.

So while I was a bit nervous I might set myself on fire with a blowtorch or hammer my own thumb, I was excited when a friend offered me a slot at a jewellery making workshop at the Glamorous Owl. A compact workshop located down an alley near to the Old George, The Glamorous Owl hosts a range of classes, from the more straightforward 2-hour sessions that we booked (bangle and plain rings) to all-day classes for more complicated pieces, including those with gemstones – you can even create your own wedding rings!

[Image description: a soft square silver bangle]

Friendly, non-judgmental guidance (including how to safely use a blowtorch and hammer, so I emerged unscathed), and a chill atmosphere made for a low-pressure session for our group, and I was delighted to emerge with my bangle. Which looks a little plain in this photo, but I promise you is super cute on. More importantly – I made it with my own hands!

You can find out about the workshops here.

Anyway, thanks again for reading – please do share with your friends! Every new subscriber really does give me a boost. And remember if you want to support my writing but a paid subscription isn’t for you (times are hard, I get it!), you can buy me a one-off Ko-fi or buy one of my books.

Remember: everything included is my personal preference / opinion, and while I strive to be accurate, I always advising checking with the relevant venue.

[Image description: nighttime photo of the Quayside taken from the Newcastle side.]

Theatre to book now

Live Theatre

While Live theatre hasn’t announced its new season yet, there are still some things to book now.

The Lawnmowers are a Gateshead-based company led by people with learning difficulties, and much of their work is focused on challenging how learning difficulties are portrayed in theatre and wider media.

I saw their pandemic-era filmed piece Retake, Remake (which I think they later toured live), a campy and hilarious satire on how people with learning difficulties are portrayed in films (which some delicious barbs aimed at actors who treat these roles as award-bait). So, I’m looking forward to Billy and Teddy’s Amazing Adventure, a Bill and Ted inspired piece that sees its protagonists travel through time to prove that history is full of successful people with learning difficulties. It’s only on a couple of nights (for now!) so catch it while you can.

Only on for one night, Silence is a one-woman show created by two Ukrainian theatre makers (Volodymyr Piterov, who wrote and directed, and Ivanna Nitsak, who performs) and marks the fourth anniversary of the invasion of Ukraine.

And of course, it’s probably worth booking now for Shelagh Stephenson’s Astell and Woolf, which is about a meeting in the afterlife between North East feminist Mary Astell and novelist Virginia Woolf. Described as being packed with laughs and ‘feminist fire’ this sounds like a must-see!

Alphabetti

Alphabetti is closed in January, but has some fun stuff lined up for February – though these are mostly very short runs, so if you fancy something, book it quickly!

Sam Freeman’s We’re Not Getting a Dog – which is apparently mostly not about dogs – is a ‘comic story about making a house a home’.

I saw Matt Miller and Peader Kirk’s Fixing on its first run and enjoyed it. This story of family and the rituals that bring us closer (including drag and car maintenance!) uses Miller’s gentle charm to great effect and is definitely worth seeing.

If comedy is more your thing, ‘delusional trans comic’ – at least that’s what it says on the website! – Sam Nicoresti brings Fringe hit Baby Doomer for one night only, cataloguing dressing room disasters in TK Maxx (who amongst us hasn’t suffered the indignity of ‘I’m stuck in this frock and can’t get out? OK, maybe you, but I can certainly relate) and the search for the perfect skirt.

Oh, and if your interest lies more in creating things for stage, Tamsin Rees’ workshop The Nuts and Bolts of Playwriting is worth checking out. Rees’ plays have been staged and published (including at Live) and they have a PhD in playwriting. They also have a gentle, encouraging style – so don’t feel intimidated!

What I have been watching

Excited that last year’s unexpected hit High Potential has returned to Disney after its hiatus. Rob ‘Veronica Mars’ Thomas’s new show (created by Drew Goddard, based on a French show), features Kaitlin Olson as a former cleaning lady who uses her incredible IQ to solve crimes. On the one hand, this is very much your bog standard ‘crime of the week’ show, but it’s elevated by a great cast, chemistry between Olson and her cop partner Daniel Sunjata, and some fun mysteries.

Also pleased that the first half of the new season of Abbott Elementary has landed. Created by pocket-sized powerhouse Quinta Brunson, who also stars, this delightful sitcom follows the trials and tribulations of schoolteachers in an underfunded school. It benefits from a stellar cast (including Janelle James and Sheryl Lee Ralph), one of the sweetest ships on TV, and some great guest stars (including a scene stealing Taraji P Henson).

I have read many of Elizabeth George’s Inspector Lynley novels, and was a big fan of the Nathaniel Parker / Sharon Small TV series, so I was curious to check out the new series, Lynley which stars Leo Suter and Sofia Barclay and is on the BBC and iPlayer. While I didn’t enjoy it quite as much - I liked Barclay as Havers, but Suter doesn’t quite match Parker’s louche posho charm - I can see it being something that grows on me. I also see it being plagued with the same problem of the original: that in the books - or certainly up to the point I’ve read - Havers and Lynley are very much partners in solving crime only, but on TV they inevitably have much more chemistry with each other than with any of their actual love interests…

What I have been reading

A friend sent me Kathy Burke’s autobiography A Mind of My Own for Christmas, and though I just started it, it is exactly as plain-spoken and clear-eyed as you’d expect, and I’m enjoying it very much so far.

[Image description: Kathy Burke, A Mind of My Own]

Anyway, thanks again for reading – please do share with your friends! Every new subscriber really does give me a boost. And remember if you want to support my writing but a paid subscription isn’t for you (times are hard, I get it!), you can buy me a one-off Ko-fi or buy one of my books.

Remember: everything included is my personal preference / opinion, and while I strive to be accurate, I always advising checking with the relevant venue.

And remember if you want to support my writing, you can do so by becoming a paid subscriber, buying me a one-off Ko-fi or buying one of my books. Or all of my books. (A HUGE thank you to everyone who has already supported me - I can’t tell you how much I appreciate it!)

[Image description: The Midnight Shift by Cheon Seon-Ran]

January theatre

January is traditionally a quiet month for theatre, as a lot of places are winding down their festive offerings. But there are some shows to catch:

The People’s Theatre has Agatha Christie’s The Mirror Crack’d, which has Miss Marple dealing with the repercussions of a Hollywood star coming to St Mary Mead. I’ve enjoyed all of the TV adaptations of this I have seen, so I’m interested to see what it looks like on stage.

If you saw last year’s hit movie Frankenstein – or even if you didn’t – you might be interested in Mary Shelley, Helen Edmundson’s play about the life of this gothic author, which was arguably way wilder than her fiction. It lands at the People’s in Feb.

Over at Live, Jimmy Nail’s Crocodile Shoes has already sold out, but it’s always worth checking with the theatre for returns: the combo of shitty weather and the lurgy going round means you never know when someone can’t make it!

If you’re in the mood for comedy, and can last till the end of the month, Northern Stage is offering Comedy in the Café, the first of a regular comedy slot, with this month’s headliner being Bethany Black.

While the Theatre Royal’s juggernaut panto continues until January 18, it is also premiering Michael Harrison’s new musical Weird, based on Macbeth. Most of the run is reserved for schools, but January 31 is open to public bookings.

Sunderland Empire in January has The Rocky Horror Show, which is sure to shake off the January blues.

The Little Theatre in Gateshead offers Vintage Hitchcock – A Radio Play, which features three one-act plays adapted for radio, performed live on stage. Which sounds a little weird, but it’s actually sort of fascinating to watch a play for radio performed in front of you, complete with seeing how the sound effects are made!

ARC Stockton is launching its new talent night, Rough Cut Revolutions, which aims to showcase the best of Tees Valley talent. The inaugural night promises theatre, dance, comedy, spoken word and a DJ. There will be a BSL interpreter, also.

Outside the North East

I occasionally pop through to York for theatre, and honestly if you can, it’s worth it: it’s less than an hour on the train (book ahead and you can get pretty reasonable tickets), it’s a lovely theatre, and it gets a lot of shows that never make it to the North East, including Emma Rice’s shows, which are always worth travelling for. In January, Kara Tointon is The Constant Wife, which is written by Laura Wade (based on a W Somerset Maugham story).

If you can make it to London and want to support local talent, Jamie Eastlake’s Gerry & Sewell opens at the Aldwych. (If not, it returns to the Theatre Royal in June). You can read my interview with Jamie Eastlake and some of the core cast here:

Exeunt

'Seeing the North East in the West End can only be a good thing – even if we lose stacks of money’

Welcome back – we hope you all had a good Christmas and new year. Today, we have our North East expert Tracey Sinclair charting the cheering good news story that is Gerry & Sewell: a show that’s steadily grown in scale as it’s transferred from a fringe…

Read more

5 months ago · Exeunt

What I have been watching

I’ve been a little bit under the weather, so have spent a lot of time on the sofa, and mostly underwhelmed by what’s on offer, so watching lots of old movies and reruns. I am excited by the return of the Tom Hiddlestone series The Night Manager – the first series was delightfully taut. I was also pleased to see Sinners hit Sky Cinema, so I could rewatch it: it really was one of my favourite films last year. It’s also so visually and thematically rich that it rewards rewatching.

[Image description: The Scapegoat by Lucy Hughes-Hallett]

What I have been reading

I didn’t hit my reading goal last year (although I did manage a respectable 52 books). Having spoken to friends who struggled to read even a handful – I get it, life – made me feel a bit better about that. So while I have lowered my annual target to 52 (I figure one a week is a decent target), I am aware of those areas where I could be better. While my gender split was good last year (approx. 60% women authors, including some – but not enough – trans women), I only managed about 20% authors of colour, and a handful of books in translation.

So I was pleased that I started strong with a female author in translation: The Midnight Shift, by Cheon Seon-Ran, translated by Gene Png. I can’t actually take credit for this – it was a Christmas present from a friend who knows I love vampires. This story of mysterious suicides among the elderly in a dilapidated hospital is threaded through with queer romance, and offers an interesting take on the mythology.

I’m also indulging my inner history nerd by reading The Scapegoat, Lucy Hughes-Hallet’s biography of George Villiers, the favourite of James I of England. You may be familiar with the name from the TV mini-series Mary & George, which starred Nicholas Galitzine as the titular George, alongside Julianne Moore as his ambitious mother. It’s a ridiculous romp of a show, elevated by a host of great character actors (Tony Curran, Nicola Walker, Simon Russell Beale) but it’s a fun watch – I’m enjoying getting a more factual take on this fascinating character!

Anyway, thanks again for reading – please do share with your friends! Every new subscriber really does give me a boost. And remember if you want to support my writing but a paid subscription isn’t for you (times are hard, I get it!), you can buy me a one-off Ko-fi or buy one of my books.

Remember: everything included is my personal preference / opinion, and while I strive to be accurate, I always advising checking with the relevant venue.

As last night was my last show of the year - A Queermas Carol at Alphabetti - I’m signing off now till January.

And to see you into the new year - the first three words you see are yours in 2026. (If you don’t like them, pick three more, the world is hard enough - treat yourself!)

[Image description, a cross-stitch designed like a word search]

See you next year!