What's on in the North East

Published: 24 November 2019
Reporter: Peter Lathan

A Haunted Existence (Alphabetti) Credit: Paul Samuel White
I Wanna Be Yours (Arts Centre Washington and The Maltings, Berwick)
Aladdin (Gala, Durham)

Beauty and the Beast runs at Newcastle Theatre Royal from Tuesday until 19 January.

Wolf, a new show from Kitchen Zoo for the under-5s, runs in Stage 3 (various times; some shows are sold out) at Northern Stage until 4 January. Laura Lindow’s adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen’s The Snow Queen, a show for the whole family, opens on Saturday in Stage 1 and runs until 4 January (various times).

At Alphabetti from Tuesday to Saturday, Tom Marshman presents A Haunted Existence, the story of how, in the early 1950s, 17-year-old Geoffrey Patrick Williamson was on the Exeter-to-Bristol train when he got into a conversation with another man—also travelling in his train compartment—who accused Geoffrey of making 'improper approaches'. The other man was a Railway Officer in plain clothes. Geoffrey was arrested at the next stop. When questioned, he revealed the names of men he had had sex with, so beginning a domino effect of arrests, prison sentences, aversion therapy and suicide. On Saturday at 1:00, Alphabetti will be showing the film of Open Clasp’s Rattle Snake (free but booking required). We reviewed of the stage play (same cast) at Live Theatre in 2017.

On Tuesday, the Russian State Ballet and Opera House presents Swan Lake at the Tyne Theatre and Opera House.

On Saturday at Dance City, Talent Hub, presents HELM, a new dance work from Yorkshire Dance and TIN Arts’ Talent Hub project, a professional development programme for dance artists from the North East of England and Yorkshire with a learning disability or autism.

I Wanna Be Yours by Zia Ahmed, a Paines Plough and Tamasha production, comes to Arts Centre Washington on Wednesday. Ella is from Yorkshire. Haseeb is from London. They order a pizza. House red for Ella. Hot chocolate for Haseeb. A play about finding love and holding onto it with everything you’ve got.

Snow White, this year’s panto at the Customs House in South Shields, opens on Wednesday and runs until 5 January. From Saturday until Christmas Eve in The Studio, Elfluent, Santa’s Naughty Elf, stars in The Elves and the Shoemaker, the “Little Panto for Little People”.

I Wanna Be Yours comes to The Maltings in Berwick on Saturday.

Jack and the Beanstalk opens at the Playhouse Whitley Bay on Saturday and runs until 4 January (various times).

Aladdin continues at the Gala in Durham until 5 January (various times).

Snow White: The Pantomime opens at Consett Empire on Saturday and runs until 31 December.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs opens at Billingham Forum on Sunday and runs until 5 January.

At ARC Stockton at 7:00 on Wednesday, Theatre in Black's Loop combines new writing, performance and live looping audio to look at how loneliness can trick you into feeling content and the steps you can take to overcome it.

On Tuesday and Wednesday at Middlesbrough Theatre Chapter House Theatre Company presents A Christmas Carol.

At the Hullabaloo in Darlington on Tuesday at 7:00, Guy Masterson performs his one-man show Under Milk Wood, followed on Wednesday by A Christmas Carol.

Snow White opens at Harrogate Theatre on Wednesday and runs until 19 January (various times).

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