The all-male comedy ballet company Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo comes to Newcastle Theatre Royal on Tuesday and Wednesday.
A busy week at Northern Stage: on Tuesday at 8:00 in Stage 3, Christopher Brett Bailey presents Suicide Notes… the spoken word of Christopher Brett Bailey, a linguistic kaleidoscope of caustic cartoons, crackpot prophesies and demented erotica, verbal diarrhoea, dirty jokes, venomous poetry and tall tales that corkscrew deep into nightmares. Then, from Wednesday to Friday at 4:30 in Stage 1, Tall Stories presents The Snail and the Whale, inspired by the book by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler, aimed at ages 4+. On Wednesday at 8:00 in Stage 3, Dawn State presents Gulliver Returns, inspired by Gulliver’s Travels, and finally on Thursday at 7:45 in Stage 2, it’s the Great Northern Slam Autumn 2018, hosted by Jeff Price with special guest poet Rowan McCabe.
At Live Theatre from Wednesday to Saturday, The Six Twenty returns with Nina Berry’s part-theatre, part-gig show Fans.
On Tuesday and Wednesday at 6:30 at Alphabetti, Théâtre Sans Frontières and Théâtre À L’Envers present A Frog Called Woânda / Une Grenouille qui s’appelle Woânda. The show is aimed at ages 5 to 10 and the Tuesday performance is in English and Wednesday’s in French. Then from Thursday to Saturday, Cap-a-Pie presents The Important Man, a story based on the importance of fortune telling and the supernatural during the First World War.
On Wednesday, the Russian State Opera brings Madama Butterfly to the Tyne Theatre and Opera House.
Spirit of the Dance is at Sunderland Empire on Thursday.
Middle Child brings One Life Stand, a late-night search for intimacy across a hyperconnected, hypersexual city, to Arts Centre Washington on Thursday.
Presented by Sunderland Stages, SBC Theatre brings Where We Began to The Peacock, Sunderland, on Tuesday.
The Time Machine, Rebecca Vaughan and Elton Townend Jones’s re-invention of H G Wells’s classic story, comes to the Customs House in South Shields on Thursday.
On Friday, the comedy Seriously Dead comes to The Phoenix in Blyth.
The Time Machine moves to The Maltings in Berwick on Friday.
Ambreen Razia’s new thriller, POT, which delves into the hidden lives of Britain’s invisible children, adrift in the care system at the mercy of gang culture, comes to the Queen’s Hall in Hexham on Tuesday. Then on Wednesday, Ballet Cymru brings its production of Cinderella to the venue.
On Thursday, The National Production Company presents The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) at Playhouse Whitley Bay.
A Frog Called Woânda continues at The Exchange in North Shields on Monday at 10:30 (in French). Then on Saturday at 8:00, Northern Stage presents Laura Lindow’s version of The War of the Worlds.
From Tuesday to Saturday, Durham’s Gala Theatre presents its in-house production of Jim Cartwright’s Two.
On Friday, One Life Stand moves to The Witham in Barnard Castle.
The Russian State Opera brings Bizet’s Carmen to Billingham Forum on Thursday.
On Sunday and Monday 8 October (various times) Stick Man for age 3+ comes to Middlesbrough Theatre.
One Life Stand is at Hartlepool Town Hall on Saturday.
At 7:00 on Wednesday at ARC Stockton, Lisa Hammond and Rachael Spence with Improbable and the Royal Court Theatre present Still No Idea. Ten years ago, best mates Lisa and Rachael made a show together, No Idea. They had no idea where to start so they went onto the streets and asked the public what story they should tell. What characters should they play? When they saw Lisa in a wheelchair and Rachael not, what the public said was "funny, jaw dropping and ultimately heartbreaking". Have things changed ten years later?
The National Gilbert and Sullivan Opera Company come to Darlington Hippodrome on Monday with Iolanthe, on Tuesday with Ruddigore and on Wednesday with The Pirates of Penzance.
On Wednesday and Thursday, Bamboozle Theatre Company brings Storm to The Hullabaloo in Darlington. Using elements of The Tempest and a limited amount of Shakespeare’s language, Storm tells a dramatic story of the sea, ships, islands and magic. There are autism-specific performances at 9:45, 11:15 and 1:30 and relaxed performances at 4:30. The autism specific performances are intimate shows for a maximum group size of 6 children accompanied by their teachers, carers or family group. These are suitable for children who can be described as 'hard to reach'.
Communicate, an exploration of the effects of grief on individuals and on relationships comes to Darlington’s Majestic Theatre on Friday. It is autobiographical; the writer lost both his parents whilst he was in his twenties, shut down, did not communicate and, a few years later, was diagnosed with PTSD. The central aims of the play are to address and raise awareness of the need to grieve, to talk, to listen and to have hope.
It's Berlin, 1914, and the music has to stop. Kaiser Wilhelm has summoned a dance instructress from England to put his officers through their paces, but now war is only days away. From ballroom to battlefield and beyond, The Kaiser and I, a two-person show, charts the friendship of a man and a woman caught in their nations' crossfire. The play runs at the Georgian Theatre Royal in Richmond on Thursday and Friday.
In The Studio at Harrogate Theatre from Wednesday to Saturday, 6:12 present Here The Dead Voices, a devised drama, performed by one actor, acknowledging the end of World War One. In the Main House from Thursday to Saturday, Reform Theatre Company and Harrogate Theatre present John Godber’s This Might Hurt.