The QT

Monday 21 October 2024
21/10/2024

Author name: David Whetstone

The Brontรซs as not taught in schools

A new play called Underdog: The Other Other Brontรซ has just opened at the National Theatre but thereโ€™s good reason in the North East for looking out for the reviews when they start appearing in the coming days (press night in London is April 4). Itโ€™s a co-production between the National Theatre and Northern Stage …

Puppets on parade in Newcastle once again

The fifth Newcastle Puppetry Festival will get off to a flying start on Saturday (March 30) โ€” weather permitting โ€” with a City of Kittiwakes Parade along Northumberland Street. What should be a terrific spectacle starts at 2pm โ€” but the work began long before that with around 250 local residents taking part in a …

Thriller is worth the wait

Anyone who tore through Steve Chambersโ€™ first thriller has had to wait quite a long time for his second โ€” 11 years, to be exact. Worth the wait, though, Iโ€™d say. The Dark Months, set mostly in rural Northumberland and full of tension and lethal skulduggery, is that publisherโ€™s dream, a page-turner. Thereโ€™s a precedent …

Why NOVUM festivalโ€™s no shrinking violet

It had to be a first. Never before, surely, within the beautiful debating chamber at Newcastle Civic Centre, has anybody raised the prospect of shrink-wrapping local residents. Feasibly it could have been mulled over as a punishment for some civic misdemeanour โ€” non-payment of council tax, perhaps, or serial bus lane infringement. It might even …

Review: Edward Scissorhands

Nothing at all for Sir Matthew Bourne to worry about in Newcastle. Not on stage anyway. Back at the Theatre Royal for the first time since 2005, his Edward Scissorhands earned a standing ovation from a sell-out audience on opening night, probably the first of many during a run that extends into a second week. …

Review: Tish

At the end of last year, a series of screenings of a film called Tish packed out Tyneside Cinema. Ahead of its small screen premiere on BBC4 next month (April), hereโ€™s what David Whetstone had to say about it*. *This is how the review appeared on Cultured. North East in November. Any references to remaining …

Conference brings writers together

A full house is expected for this yearโ€™s Newcastle Writing Conference for which tickets go on sale today (March 20). Writing may be a solitary activity but that doesnโ€™t mean all writers are solitary people. Grace Keane, senior programme manager at New Writing North, says itโ€™s been five years since the conference last took place. …

Children experience the magic of opera

Nine oโ€™clock on Tuesday morning at Newcastle Civic Centre and children from across the city are trooping in for a spot of opera to get the day off to a rousing and harmonious start. Itโ€™s not every morning that a six-year-old from Fenham has a date with a singer who has performed on the operatic …

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