The Royal Shakespeare Company returns to Newcastle’s Theatre Royal for two weeks, with Measure for Measure (Wednesday 11, Saturday 14, Friday 20 and Saturday 21 March), As You Like It (Thursday 12, Friday 13, Saturday 14 and Thursday 19) and The Taming of the Shrew (Tuesday 17, Wednesday 18, Thursday 19 and Saturday 21).
In Stage 1 at Northern Stage on Tuesday, in a blend of hip hop dance and freeform antics, BLKDOG, from Far From The Norm, explores the inner battlefield of an ageing artist trying to retain his youth.
At Live Theatre this week, the 2020 Elevator Festival begins with a double bill of new plays by young local writers, Last Seen Bensham Road by Samantha Neale and Redcoat by Lewis Jobson, produced by The Six Twenty.
After an eventful school trip to Whitby, Stephen stuck up for his little brother Mike and ended up having to wear a humiliatingly silly hat. Years after Stephen’s death, whenever Mike thinks about his older brother, he pictures him in that Damn Seagulls hat. Damn Seagulls is at Alphabetti from Tuesday to Friday.
At Dance City on Thursday, Familiar is a twinset of performances on significant otherness. One authored by Gillie Kleiman and performed by Greg Wohead, the other authored by Wohead and performed by Kleiman, the two are twisted together with the help of story, song and spit.
At Sunderland Empire from Thursday to Saturday, Birmingham Royal Ballet presents Swan Lake.
At Arts Centre Washington on Friday at 1:30, Action Transport Theatre presents Adrift, a show for ages 8+. Two children in a boat dream of catching a fish so big it will capsize the boat. Of encountering a mermaid who will sing them the most beautiful melodies. Of lassoing a whale who will pull them to shore, to a new land of thick green grass and endless blue skies. A safe land.
At the Customs House in South Shields on Monday, Gazebo Theatre presents Wanted: in the midst of a time of uncertainty, division and political unrest, a young woman wrestles with her own isolation and call to respond; the stories of five extraordinary ordinary women who share a passion for standing up for what is right. And then for children on Sunday at 12:00 and 3:00, Arbuthnot and Pals' Super Happy Silly Mega Fun Game Show returns.
OSCiLLATE, an energetic tap dance experience choreographed by Avalon Rathgeb and Dre Torres that explores human interaction and the effects of miscommunication in relationships, comes to Alnwick Playhouse on Friday.
On Tuesday and Wednesday (various times), David Wood's The Tiger Who Came to Tea comes to The Maltings in Berwick.
In the Green Room at the Queen’s Hall, Hexham on Thursday, Victoria talks about How to Be Amazingly Happy!, a mixture of storytelling and physical comedy. (This show is sold out.)
On Saturday at The Exchange, North Shields, NTC presents Angels of The North, adapted from the works of Joyce Quin and Moira Kilkenny, celebrating and remembering some of the North East’s most remarkable and inspiring women.
At ARC Stockton on Wednesday, *Gender Not Included is a story told entirely through lip-sync. Melody Sproates uses a collage of sound clips ranging from The Prodigy to Piers Morgan to answer questions like “what does non-binary even mean?” and “are you a boy or a girl?” as well as queering all the things that make us us.
On Friday, Apollo Theatre Company presents Round the Horne, based on original scripts by Barry Took and Marty Feldman, at Middlesbrough Theatre.
On Thursday, the fast, furious, occasionally filthy and invariably funny Canterbury Tales comes to the Georgian Theatre Royal, Richmond.
On Thursday and Friday, Smile Club, set in a dystopian world in which a government drive exists to tame and prune unruly women deemed unable to fit into society, a darkly comic and satirical new one-woman show from writer-performer Andrea Heaton (Fidget Theatre) and writer Adam Z Robinson (Shivers, The Book of Darkness and Light), directed by Red Ladder Theatre Company’s Rod Dixon, comes to Harrogate Theatre's Studio.