Sorry this is late. I had two season launches in the backlog, and then I was spending a lot of time preparing two different shows. But it would be embarrassing if we ran out of April, so let’s get a move on. Stuff that happened in March The big news, of course, was the closure of the Vault Festival. This is a really big deal, and so got a whole article to itself. Other than that, we’ve had quite a lot of news around various censorship issues. So yet again, I wearily weigh in to censorship debates. But we’ll get to that later. First of all. Another new Theatre space in Sunderland You may rememb ..read more

With Live’s year ahead now covered, it’s now time for the other press launch I was invited to. Laurel’s (a subtle rebranding that is now named after one particular Mr. Laurel rather than two) has had an excellent 2022 and 2023, with a transfer of their megahit Gerry and Sewell to Live Theatre last November, and now an upcoming project in partnership with the National Theatre. That particular project is a long-term thing, and is not part of the upcoming season. Instead, there’s a heavy crossover with the Richard Jenkinson commission. First, a catch-up on the Richard Jenkinson Commission. I was ..read more

Firstly apologies for this article being late. I do appreciate being invited to season launches and aim to give coverage as swiftly as possible, but the unfortunate news about the Vault Festival took precedence. But now there is time to catch up. Just a reminder before we start that this is not a comprehensive guide to everything covered at the launch – I leave that up to other media outlets. My interest is more with what grabs my attention. Much of this comes down to whims; something the doesn’t get my attention can turn out to be a gem – and very occasionally, something I was convinced was ..read more

It is never nice to hear a much-loved arts events is closing for good – but it’s less nice still when it comes out of the blue. There was the bombshell news last year that the owners of the space underneath Waterloo station didn’t want them back again, and the immediate worry was over money. Then the concerns of money grew quieter and focus turned to finding the right replacement venue. A replacement was found. The Vault Festival took on new branding, #SaveVault became #BuildVault, and a big relauch gala was supposed to take place at the end of this month. Surely this was proof more than anyt ..read more

Apart from an unresolved puzzle over who or what Orpheus is, Pilot Theatre’s decision to focus A Song for Ella Grey on a group of close-knit friends does justice to David Almond’s book that his own solo play script never could. It’s time for Ella Grey at Northern Stage. Or, for those of us with long enough memories, Ella Grey round two. For those of us with long enough memories, this is in fact the second time Northern Stage has produced an adaptation of David Almond’s young adult novel for the stage. Seven years ago they did a solo play, written by David Almond himself and directed by then a ..read more

Blimey. It’s a news-heavy month this Feburary. Better get right to it because I run out of March to write this up in. Stuff that happened in February Oh, my aching hands. Here’s what you’ve kept me busy writing up: More woes at Brighton Fringe It turns out I wasn’t connected to all the Brighton Fringe rumour mills. I’d known for some time Caravanserai wasn’t coming back, probably because Brighton Fringe couldn’t run a venue without letting costs go out of control. Now it’s gone public that Spiegeltent and Sweet aren’t being part of Brighton Fringe either. They are still running at the same tim ..read more

Credit: Paul Brake, DeviantArt COMMENT: AI in the arts can never do as good as job as a human, and is only likely to be viable for formulaic and uncreative activities. Unfortunately, there’s a lot of people don’t have a problem with any of those things. Panic! The Terminators are coming! And the Cybermen! And the killer robot dogs from that Black Mirror episode. They’re going to start a nuclear apocalypse and hunt the survivors and eat your brains and put you into dystopian computer simulations … but even worse – they’ll take your jobs as artists! It’s even in the next Matrix movie. As the Sen ..read more

It was an unusual decision for the New Vic’s Christmas production to emulate a ballet story close to the original ballet. But a couple of audacious decisions makes The Nutcracker one of their most successful Christmas productions. One sign that the New Vic does something right with its Christmas production: there’s so much demand it runs to the end of January. That’s also convenient for me because it’s something on my calendar in an otherwise empty month. Catching The Nutcracker at the end of its run, I was hearing a lot of praise, but there was a difference with Theresa Heskins’s latest wint ..read more

And now, a post I’m very excited to share with you. Following on from my review of The Card and my subsequent award as Best Production 2023, Deborah McAndrew from Claybody Theatre got in touch we me and asked me if I would like to take a look at their new space. Until now, Claybody Theatre has been doing a series of performances in ad-hoc venues (co-production with the New Vic excepted), but they are now leasing the Dipping House in Stoke for a year. As I live in Durham rather than Stoke, this had to wait until January when I was next travelling to Stoke anyway (for The Nutcracker – good revi ..read more

January is mostly a quiet month for theatre, but with February almost upon is it’s time to have a look at what’s coming up. Might be worth a reminder at this point that this is not a comprehensive guide to the best things coming up in the north east – much of this is steered by what I’ve seen before, and that largely comes down to luck. If you want to see the full rules, you can check out my Recommendations policy. Before we begin, one small but notable absence from this list is a production from Live Theatre. For some reason, they’re not doing a mainstream production until May. I’m not sure w ..read more