Sunderland Stages Autumn Programme

Published: 16 August 2014
Reporter: Peter Lathan

Sunderland Stages, a new initiative to bring more theatre to Sunderland, has announced its autumn programme.

Celebrating the very best of theatre, dance and spoken word performances and brings them to hidden, found and unexpected venues across Sunderland, between Autumn 2014 and Summer 2015, Sunderland Stages will bring performances to a range of venues in the City including the Royalty Theatre, Arts Centre Washington, North Shore and the Bonded Warehouse (both University of Sunderland Students’ Union venues).

There will also be a number of special performances in ‘found’ spaces.

Announced so far are:

Rowan McCabe and Arts Centre Washington
North East Rising
16 September 2014
Independent, Sunderland
Do you ever feel like the media is being a bit unfair about the North East? Like there’s a bit more to it than closed down mines and drunken Ken and Barbie dolls? Well, Rowan is pretty sure that there is and he’s on a mission to find the true heart of the region’s culture.

Company TSU in association with Curious Monkey
Beats North
23 September 2014
North Shore, Sunderland University Students' Union
A double bill of new plays by Luke Barnes and Ishy Din, seamlessly interwoven live on stage by award winning scratch DJ Mariam Rezaei. Exploring 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.

Red Ladder
We're Not Going Back
8 October 2014 at the Royalty Theatre, Sunderland, and 9 October at Arts Centre Washington
Set in the 1984/85 miners’ strike, this hard-hitting musical comedy follows the fortunes of three sisters determined to set up a branch of ‘Women Against Pit Closures’. We’re Not Going Back tackles the resilience of working communities, the make-and-mend fabric of family and the power of sticking two fingers up to a government hell-bent on destruction… … and all with humour, song and a six-pack of Babycham.

balletLORENT
The Night Ball
17 October 2014
North Shore, the University of Sunderland Students' Union
Performed in the atmospheric setting of North Shore The Night Ball is a truly unforgettable experience celebrating the sheer, unadulterated joy of dancing in a social environment.

Horse + Bamboo
Hansel + Gretel
18 October 2014
The Royalty Theatre, Sunderland
Suitable for children aged 5+
Hunger gnaws at the stomach like a dog on a bone.

Théâtre Sans Frontières in partnership with Alnwick Playhouse
Heaven Eyes
23 October 2014
Arts Centre Washington
Based on the novel by internationally renowned children’s author David Almond (Skellig), Heaven Eyes is a poetic but gritty story about young people trying to find their way in the world. Mysterious, heart-breaking and humourous in equal measure.

The Paper Birds
Blind
26 October 2014
Bonded Warehouse, University of Sunderland Students' Union
A beat-boxing theatre show unlike any other; UK beat-boxing champion Grace Savage explores what young people are hearing in the world today, from motherly advice to what we learn in the school playground and the music charts. An interrogation into the influences on young people today.

Bent Architect Theatre Company
England Arise!
7 November 2014
The Royalty Theatre, Sunderland
The uplifting and powerful story of the young men and women of a northern town who believed passionately in a better world. Inspired by the revolutionary art, music and literature of the times, they refuse to take arms against their fellow workers and fight in the First World War. They suffered prison and brutality for their conscientious objection. Yet the community supported them so much that it soon became known as a ‘hotbed of pacifism’!

RASHDASH
Oh I Can't Be Bothered!
12 November 2014
Bonded Warehouse, University of Sunderland Students' Union
Bea and Dee stand with their noses pressed together in an empty room. They sit in the bath and sing Lady GaGa. Dee falls over. Bea lifts her up. They are scared that the world will end before they do, they are scared they might not love anyone else as much as they love each other. They don't fancy each other, but does that matter? They're going to change the world. They're going to watch the next episode of Made In Chelsea.

Paines Plough and Birmingham Repertory Theatre
Hopelessly Devoted
20 November 2014
Arts Centre Washington
Following her smash-hit debut Wasted, Kate Tempest is back with an incendiary new play.

Kate Fox and Union Jill
Letting Off Steam
21 November 2014
The Canny Space (formerly Holy Trinity Church), Sunderland
An evening of entertaining rhythms, rhyming and ranting from three of the North’s top female wordsmiths.

Puppetship and Queens Hall Arts
In a Nutshell
28 - 29 November 2014
Sunderland Museum and Winter Gardens
The clock has stopped at a quarter to Spring. The World is frozen in Winter. The key to the New Year hidden lies in a Nutshell, but unlocking the secret means that everything must change. That's life - in a Nutshell. A warm and touching story of beginnings and endings, goodbyes and hellos told with puppets and bits and pieces.

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