Jabberwocky's back!

The autumn Jabberwocky Market – pop up theatre events in Darlington and beyond – returns for its eleventh season from Wednesday 3rd to Sunday 7th October.

• Thursday 4 and Friday 5 at 12:00, 2:30, 5:30
  Saturday 6 at 1:00 and 3:00
  At Greenfield Community College in Jubilee Road, Shildon
  Ground Control
  For ages 7 to 12

  Here’s the situation: in 1974, a manned mission was sent into space to look for inhabitable planets. Now, in present day, the sensors aboard Shuttle X27-40 indicate that it may have found just such a planet. The three astronauts on board are about to be woken from their hypersleep… They need your help.

  Using a giant projection screen and a live, highly intelligent computer (well, Futuretron), you will be part of a team deciding on an identity for the planet, its laws and values. Ground Control from non zero one is an interactive performance for up to forty 7- to 12-year-olds.

• Friday 5 October at 2:30 and Saturday 6 at 8:00
  At Liddiard Theatre, Polam Hall School, Grange Road, Darlington
  Rendezvous in Bratislava

  Miriam and her granddad are making a cabaret together. They’re the perfect double act: he’s got the stories, she loves telling them and they both have a flair for the theatrical. The only problem is they’ve never met (he’s been dead for 37 years).

  With original music and a live band of Slovaks, Rendezvous in Bratislava traces family connections across national, historical and political borders and celebrates the power of laughter in troubled times.

• Friday 5 October at 8:00
  Darlington Covered Market
  Black
  By 20 Stories High

  Nikki doesn’t think that her Dad is a racist, he just cares deeply about his community.

  But when a Zimbabwean family moves in over the road, the dog won’t stop barking, the local kids start lobbing stones and her Dad starts laying down the law.

  This provocative show digs deep into the heart of racial tensions in the UK today.

• Saturday 6 October (drop in)
  Darlington Covered Market
  The Quest for the Perfect Shirt
  By Richard Bliss

  Richard has been travelling the country, talking to men and women about shirts: what shirts they like, how shirts should be worn, what messages shirts send out to the world. Using these conversations as his starting point, Richard is creating shirts that are being exhibited in museums, galleries and at pop-up events all around the country.

• Saturday 6 October at 3:00
  Liddiard Theatre, Polam Hall School, Grange Road, Darlington
  Big Little Gigs

  Featuring the popular vintage swing band Ragtime Rewind performing 1930s and 1940s swing dance sets, plus 1950s and modern tunes with a vintage twist. Come along and be swept into a long-gone era for the afternoon.

  Gigs for 0- to 10-year-olds and their families have become popular since Big Little Gigs began at a Jabberwocky Market three years ago and they’re delighted to welcome back this fusion of children’s entertainment and gig.

  To celebrate grandchildren and grandparents, there’s a ticket discount for a child and grandparent, and an accompanying great-grandparent can come along completely free.

• Saturday 6 October at 7:00
  Liddiard Theatre, Polam Hall School, Grange Road, Darlington
  Facebook Saved Our Baby
  By Wolf Close
  For ages 12+

  A work in progress: a true story of the life-changing impact of a daughter’s chronic eczema and the hope the family found in the most unexpected of places.