South Shields Customs House, which celebrates its 21st year in November, has announced its autumn season. Theatre highlights are:
- 17 September
Vital Xposure Presents
The Disappearance of Dorothy Lawrence
It’s 1915. England is at war. Journalist Dorothy Lawrence aims to become War Correspondent, cycles to frontline in France never to be seen in public again. - 30 September & Thursday 1 October
Camisado Club presents
You, Me and Everything Else
If you could send a mixtape to outer space, on behalf of planet Earth, what would be on it?
Right now, there’s a golden record hurtling through space. It’s about you and me. You, me and the world. You, me and the universe. A science-fact love story. Two ordinary people do an extraordinary thing. Two ordinary people look out into the universe and find the most human thing: love. - 4 October
Company TSU presents
Beats North
Beats North explores the soundtrack to our lives through the eyes and ears of two young northern men who are still trying to figure it out. Al’s family want him to be a Bollywood convert, but he craves Motown and the spotlight for him and his guitar. Jack gets lost in the power of Bonnie Tyler and his own imagination, much to his dad’s frustration. - 7 – 10 October
A Customs House Production
The Duke in the Cupboard
In 1961, one of the world's most audacious art thefts shocked the nation. A portrait by Goya of the Duke of Wellington, idolised for defeating Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo, had been snatched from under the noses of security guards at the National Portrait Gallery. For the first half of the swinging sixties, detectives at New Scotland Yard were taunted by the mysterious perpetrator. For four years, the police were tormented, calling in forensic scientists, criminal psychologists—and even a medium. Little did they know they needed to look no further than Benwell, Newcastle. - 14 October
Black Coffee Theatre presents
One Last Waltz
Alice is becoming more and more forgetful. Her daughter Mandy is always on hand to help out but the strain is becoming too much. A long-forgotten photograph stirs a memory and lures Alice back to the Crown Hotel in Blackpool. Hoping for a chance to dance in the tower ballroom one last time, mother and daughter set out. But Blackpool isn’t how Alice remembers and things become too much for her as she finds herself getting lost in the past. - 23 –24 October
Jump to Cow Heaven
Set in December 1966, in a small basement flat in London’s East End, Frankie ‘The Mad Axe Man’ Mitchell is in hiding, having just been sprung from Dartmoor prison by the Kray Twins. With only his minder John for company and Lisa, a prostitute provided by the Twins to see to his needs, Frank awaits the car that will take him to a new life in the country. But as the days go by and Christmas approaches, Frank’s frustration leads him close to the breaking point. On the night before Christmas, he disappears and the lips of everyone are sealed. - 29 – 31 October (2PM)
Customs House production
Wendy the Witch and the Full Moon Party
Wendy the Witch returns for another spooky tale just in time for Halloween. - 2 November
Tangram Theatre Company presents
Element in the Room
A Radioactive Musical Comedy about the Death and Life of Marie Curie - 3 November
Rumpus Theatre Company presents
The Haunted Dolls’ House
A spine-chilling new play - 6 November
Warwick Arts Centre and China Plate present
Confirmation
Confirmation is a show about the gulfs we can’t talk across, and about the way we choose to see only the evidence that proves we’re right. Working with research into the phenomenon of Confirmation Bias, Confirmation attempts to have an honourable dialogue, real and imagined, with political extremism. - 9 November
Curtis Productions and Theatre by the Lake Present
The Bogus Woman
An African woman arrives in a strange country fleeing for her life, seeking safety and asylum. Despite having committed no crime, she is indefinitely confined, interrogated, humiliated and abused. She witnesses the cruelty of the authorities and their casual disregard for an individual’s human rights. This strange country is England. - 20 – 21 November
Red Cape Theatre presents
Be Brave and leave for the Unknown
This play looks at the nature of bravery both epic and domestic, large and small. In war zones and waiting rooms, on roadsides and railway platforms, against all the odds, we discover a world bursting with bravery. - 1 December – 9 January
The Customs House panto
Alice in Wonderland - 5 – 24 December (Various times)
The Customs House presents
Santa’s Naughty Elf and the Christmas Caper
After all his Christmas mishaps, Elfluent has earned the name of Santa’s Naughty Elf. But what if there was a naughtier elf who wanted to end Christmas for good?