Presenting work by selected artists from TeesdaleArtNet.  Presenting work by selected artists from TeesdaleArtNet, the recently established network for all artists living or working in the dale.

This is an exciting exhibition running alongside the inaugural TeesdaleArtNet Open Studios event featuring all aspects of visual art created locally.

Closed Sundays and Mondays

The extraordinary true story of an unexpected friendship in the later years of Queen Victoria's (Academy Award winner Judi Dench) remarkable rule.  Judy Dench stars in this compelling drama about the true story of Queen Victoria's unlikely friendship with a young Indian clerk.

Celebrate spring by making relief prints with inspiration from plants and flowers - this workshop was postponed from 3rd March. due to the adverse weather conditions.  Karen Babayan presents Patterns in Nature.  Spring is on its way and in celebration we will use plants and flowers as inspiration.  Participants will make a series of sketches, which they will then develop into relief prints incorporating repeat pattern and colour.

Nancy Kerr, James Fagan, Jess and Richard Arrowsmit.  From deep roots in their hometown’s vibrant music, song and dance scene, to smashing concert appearances in the UK and abroad, Sheffield-based Melrose Quartet have attracted a reputation for making music that truly connects with people. All four are internationally renowned singers, instrumentalists, writer/composers and teachers and in 2017 they were proud to be named the new patrons of Whitby Folk week.

Their latest album Dominion expands and strengthens the musical presence they first asserted with “Fifty Verses”, their 2014 BBC Folk Award-nominated debut CD.

In concert, Melrose Quartet perform a diverse repertoire - carousing chorus songs, lively dance tunes, ancient stories and modern pieces written in celebration of everything from weddings & birthdays to issues that affect all of our 21st century lives. This is music for everybody.

Melrose Quartet are known for their outstanding workshops ranging from harmony singing to accompaniment, and they also can offer The Melrose Ceilidh Band, with the addition of Nigel Holmes on Bass. This is a ceilidh with a difference, as the band use singing as well as instruments for the dance music, to great effect.

Live Screening by the Royal Ballet.

Kenneth MacMillan’s source for Manon was the 18th-century French novel by Abbé Prévost, already adapted for opera by Massenet and Puccini. Renowned dance musician Leighton Lucas and his assistant Hilda Gaunt provided a score drawn from across Massenet’s music, including his famous yearning Elégie as the theme for the lovers. The premiere was given on 7 March 1974, with the lead roles of Manon and Des Grieux danced by Antoinette Sibley and Anthony Dowell. The ballet quickly became a staple of The Royal Ballet’s repertory, and a touchstone of adult, dramatic dance.

MacMillan found new sympathy with the capricious Manon and her struggle to escape poverty. Designs by his regular collaborator Nicholas Georgiadis reflect this, depicting a world of lavish splendour polluted by miserable destitution. MacMillan’s spectacular ensemble scenes for the whole Company create vivid, complex portraits of the distinct societies of Paris and New Orleans. But it is Manon and Des Grieux’s impassioned pas de deux – recalling the intensity of MacMillan’s earlier Romeo and Juliet – that drive this tragic story, and make Manon one of MacMillan’s most powerful dramas.

What does it mean to be a man or a woman?

Is gender innate or is it nurtured?

Kit is in an amusing and unique position, having transitioned from female to male in his early thirties, he has experienced adult life on both sides of the gender fence, giving him the opportunity to notice what differences there are in how he is treated by society - what he gains and what he loses by becoming a man. However, his biggest challenge comes when he enters a male gym changing room for the first time and is confronted by masculinity in all its forms - the good, the bad and the ugly. What kind of man will he be when he finishes changing? With this refreshingly honest and irreverent physical theatre comedy by critically acclaimed company Rhum and Clay and darkly comic theatre writer and director Kit Redstone, they explore the epic path that we all have to take when trying to forge an identity.

What kind of 'man' are you?

Winner of the best theatre show award at the Pleasance 2017 & nominated for the Peter Brook Empty Space Award 2017

Multi-layered and gripping physical theatre piece. - Lyn Gardner

Presented by Rhum and Clay

Jewellery, prints, jams, toys, cards, scarves, hats, chocolate, soaps, knitted-gifts, puzzles, wooden-gifts, bags, vintage

Based in Cumbria, Northern Crafts are event organisers, running arts, craft, gift and wedding events in Cumbria and the North East of England.

Founded in 2012, they aim to provide local artists and craftspeople with access to good quality venues and events at affordable prices.

They have a wide variety of artists and craftspeople featured on our website and present at our fairs, along with a selection of purveyors of quality gifts and foods.

Reviving the tradition of Longsword Dancing teams from Teesdale schools and further afield present the grand finale of the 'Day of Dance' in Barnard Castle - the first of its kind in the country - with Town Mayor Sandra Moorhouse presenting awards and certificates.

Performance recorded in HD from Teatro Alla Scala.  Soprano Rosa Feola takes to the stage in this opera directed by Riccardo Chailly. Don Pasquale follows an old bachelor who decides to marry and produce an heir to spite his disobedient nephew Ernesto, who wants to marry for love rather than money. But Pasquale’s chosen bride isn’t who she seems and bears her own secret...

Conductor: Riccardo Chailly

Stage Director: Davide Livermore

Starring: Ambrogio Maestri and Rosa Feola

Shakespeare’s psychological thriller marks Christopher Eccleston’s RSC debut and Niamh Cusack’s return to the company.  Returning home from battle, the victorious Macbeth meets three witches on the heath. Driven by their disturbing prophecies, he sets out on the path to murder. This contemporary production of Shakespeare's darkest psychological thriller marks both Christopher Eccleston's RSC debut and the return of Niamh Cusack to the company

Winner of two BBC Folk Awards 2017: The Horizon Award for best newcomer and Best Traditional Track

Daoirí is one of the most important traditional singers to emerge in the last decade - Dónal Lunny

I’ve been listening to Daoirí’s emerging sounds since first hearing him at the Góilin Singers Club in Dublin when he was a young lad….always a treat to hear him sing - Christy Moore

Effortless, instinctive, natural…the real deal -  Mark Radcliffe, BBC Radio 2 Folk Show

A former electrician, who decided to change profession after seeing Christy Moore perform on Irish TV, Dublin-born traditional singer and bouzouki player Daoirí (pronounced ‘Derry’) Farrell is being described by some of the biggest names in Irish folk music as one of most important singers to come out of Ireland in recent years, and has delivered the album to prove them right.

After a promising debut album, The First Turn, back in 2009; Daoirí spent several years studying traditional music and performance at The University of Limerick. It was here that Fintan Vallely introduced him to the singing of the late Liam Weldon, an encounter that was to prove formative to his sound and his approach to folk song.

Daoirí had cut his teeth as a singer in Dublin’s famous Góilin Singers Club, where he was spotted early on by Christy Moore, and at other sessions across the city, many of which he still visits.  Following his studies he quickly found work accompanying artists including Christy Moore himself, as well as a list of names that sounds like a who’s who of folk music: Dónal Lunny, Martin Hayes, Dennis Cahill, Alan Doherty, Danú, Dervish, Julie Fowlis, Arty McGlynn, The John Carty Big Band, Kíla, Sean Keane, Gerry O’Connor (Banjo), Gerry O’Connor (Fiddle), Lynched and more.  In 2013 he won the All Ireland Champion Singer award at the Fleadh in Co. Derry, and in 2015 won the prestigious Danny Kyle Award at Celtic Connections in Glasgow with the line-up FourWinds.

Daoirí finally stepped into the limelight launched his own solo live career at the 2016 Celtic Connections.

His determination not to put out another album until he was sure it was the best he could produce, means the long-awaited release of True Born Irishman in October 2016 was hugely anticipated.  And indeed when a stream of the album was accidentally leaked online for around an hour in July, it was being shared and tweeted about within minutes. The ten track album was recorded in Dublin across the first half of 2016 and was produced by Daoirí with Tony Byrne and Robbie Walsh.  It features contributions from, among others, Michael McGoldrick, and is dedicated to departed Irish traditional singer Liam Weldon.

As the final touches were being made to the album, and as a relative unknown to the UK audience, in May 2016 he was invited to fly to Manchester to do a live session on the BBC Radio 2 Folk Show with Mark Radcliffe. Two UK tours and UK festival dates followed in 2016 including Moseley Folk Festival, Broadstairs Folk Week and FolkEast.

Calls were coming in from across the world and dates were put in place in Australia, Canada, Belgium, Denmark

Presented by award winning performance company, Curious Seed.  This internationally acclaimed production, Chalk About was created for young audiences aged 8+ and is a playful, funny and sometimes moving look at how we see ourselves and others, featuring dance, chalk, chat and one perfect scene containing everything you could wish for…

Chalk About explores the nature of identity and asking some BIG questions.  What makes us who we are?  Is it where we are from?  Or how we talk?  Is it the way we dance?  Our pasts, our futures?  And, most importantly, doesn’t everyone like pizza?

Bought to The Witham thanks to Highlights Rural Touring Scheme.

Award-winning performance company, Curious Seed, was formed in 2005 by Scottish choreographer, Christine Devaney.  Based in Edinburgh, we produce and present compelling, dance theatre work that questions the world we live in; work which touches and moves people, unlocking new ways of experiencing and feeling something different about the world.

They collaborate with exceptional artists - musicians, actors, dancers, designers and video makers – to create emotionally charged performances that reach across ages and art forms, and to bring something unique to the dance landscape of Scotland.  Their work has been presented across the globe from Milan to Macao, New Zealand to Norway; appearing at prestigious international festivals and venues from Sadler’s Wells to Sydney Opera House.

(For ages 8+)

Chalk About was commissioned by Imaginate, supported through the Scottish Government's Edinburgh Festivals Expo Fund. Produced by Catalyst Dance Management and co-produced in association with Tanzhaus NRW [Dusseldorf] and The Work Room [Glasgow]. Supported by Fresh Tracks Europe and Artspace.

Felt Art - a workshop of wild abandon…… Learn how to create stunning pieces of textural felt art in this fun and creative session using a wonderful selection of wool (including merino), silks and other fibres. You will come away with at least two pieces of work, where you will experiment and understand how fibres go together in the process of felt making.

Presented by Luke Wright.  We all want something to believe in. It’s 1987 and Frankie Vah gorges on love, radical politics, and skuzzy indie stardom. But can he keep it all down?

Following the multi-award-winning What I Learned From Johnny Bevan, Luke Wright’s second verse play deals with love, loss, and belief, against a backdrop of skuzzy indie venues and 80s politics. Expect frenetic guitars, visceral verse, and a Morrissey-sized measure of heartache.

Written and performed in deft verse by Fringe First & Stage Award for Acting Excellence winner, Luke Wright.

With Frankie Vah, he’s managed to craft a gorgeously-worded powerhouse of a play, in one of the only verse dramas that could claim to get a crowd cheering and stamping their feet throughout. Again. ★★★★★ Broadway Baby

This is a mature, lyrical and politically relevant piece of poetic writing … beautifully performed…  I watched and listened in awe and pleasure, just drinking, drinking, drinking in the beauty of this show. ★★★★★ Exeunt

This isn’t just socialist agit-prop, though; it reaches far further than that. In his visceral, virile verse, Wright skewers the essential cadences of all political drama. ★★★★ The Stage

The Witham Friends' Discount Event!

Presented by Old Kent Road.  SEE THE SOUND. FEEL THE MOVEMENT.

The show takes a journey through quintessential jazz, entangling movement within the graceful perspective of tap dance. Conversations of question and answer between soloists of the band and the performers expose emotions and trigger manoeuvres back and forth between each art form on stage.

Led by a live musical force the show takes an experimental ride attempting to understand the journey of falling out of love. These fervent dancers find ways to uncover their passion, love for, and raw relationship with tap dance. Using the sparse setup of the wooden boards concealing how love can never be defined, Fall Out pushes the boundaries of strength and intensity through the bare sounds of music and dance, articulated through complex rhythms and spectacularly technical performance.

Running time: 55 mins, no interval

Age: All

The internationally acclaimed choreographer’s interpretation of the classic fairy tale has, at its heart, a true war-time romance. A chance meeting results in a magical night for Cinderella and her dashing young RAF pilot, together just long enough to fall in love before being parted by the horrors of the Blitz. The sights and sounds of war-torn London are recreated by Lez Brotherston’s Olivier Award-winning costumes and sets, lighting by Olivier Award-winning Neil Austin and surround sound designed by Paul Groothuis. Matthew Bourne’s vivid story telling has never been more heart-stopping and touching, and will take the audience into the heart of Prokofiev’s magnificent score.

‘A dazzling spectacle’
The Times

‘A big-hearted ballroom Blitz. Cinders sets the stage alight in Matthew Bourne's wartime revival’
The Observer

'A Valentine to the power of love’
LA Times

Recorded at Sadler’s Wells, London in 2017
Running time: 110 minutes (3 acts, no interval)

Ballet recorded live in HD from Teatro Alla Scala

Le Corsaire follows the swashbuckling adventures of a dashing pirate who journeys across the high seas to save his beloved from the Pasha’s harem with danger looming at every turn.
With lavish sets and costumes, the choreography mirrors Russian ballet master Maris Petipa’s revival from 19th century St. Petersburg.

Full of action, passion and a romantic twist form the heart of this unmissable ballet.

Conductor: Patrick Fournillier
Choreographer: Anna-Marie Holmes

Two of folk music's most highly regarded and celebrated musicians, John McCusker and Heidi Talbot, are joining forces for the first time as a duo.

2018 will see Heidi and John celebrate their tenth year as musical partners with a new EP released in November on Under One Sky Records and an extensive Uk & European tour. John has produced Heidi's last 3 albums, they have both toured all over the globe in each others live bands but this will be the first time the pair collaborate exclusively as a duo.

Between them they have shared the stage with among others - Paul Weller, Mark Knopfler, Alison Krauss, James Taylor, Teenage Fanclub, Graham Coxon, Eddi Reader, King Creosote, Tim O'Brien and Jerry Douglas.

“One of the UK’s most gifted and versatile musicians in any genre, John McCusker is equally in demand as a multi-instrumentalist, producer and

composer”. The Guardian

“Simply vocal heaven” The Sunday Times

Swan Lake has had a special role in the repertory of The Royal Ballet since 1934. While remaining faithful to the Petipa-Ivanov text, Scarlett will bring fresh eyes to the staging of this classic ballet, in collaboration with his long-term designer John Macfarlane.
Prince Siegfried chances upon a flock of swans while out hunting. When one of the swans turns into a

beautiful woman, Odette, he is enraptured. But she is under a spell that holds her captive, allowing her to regain her human form only at night. Swan Lake was Tchaikovsky’s first ballet score. Given its status today as arguably the best loved and most admired of all classical ballets, it is surprising Swan Lake was poorly received at its premiere in 1877. It is thanks to the 1895 production by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov that Swan Lake has become part of not only ballet consciousness but also wider popular culture. That success is secured not only by the sublime, symphonic sweep of Tchaikovsky’s score, but also by the striking choreographic contrasts between Petipa’s royal palace scenes and the lyric lakeside scenes created by Ivanov.
The Royal Ballet Choreography: Liam Scarlett and Frederick Ashton after Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov
Music: Pyotr Il’yich Tchaikovsky

Four acts, approx. 180 minutes (including two intervals)

This breathtakingly beautiful Tony® Award-winning Broadway musical, inspired by the Oscar® winning MGM film, tells the impassioned story of discovering love in the ‘City of Light’.

Featuring the gorgeous music and lyrics of George and Ira Gershwin (including the classic hits ‘S Wonderful and I Got Rhythm), stunning designs, and show-stopping choreography. With a record-setting 28 five-star reviews from critics, An American in Paris is coming from London’s West End to a cinema near you.

Jerry Mulligan is an American GI striving to make it as a painter in a city suddenly bursting with hope and possibility. Following a chance encounter with a beautiful young dancer named Lise, the streets of Paris become the backdrop to a sensuous, modern romance of art, friendship and love in the aftermath of war...

Experience this “truly ravishing” (The Guardian) production in the comfort of The Witham.

The East Pointers write about real life, sketching out its joys and sorrows in vivid strokes.  The East Pointers - fiddler/singer Tim Chaisson, banjoist Koady Chaisson and guitarist Jake Charron – have spent the last two years touring Canada, the US, the UK, and Australia in support of their JUNO Award winning album, Secret Victory.
In 2016, they won ‘Touring Artist of the Year’ at the Music PEI Awards and ‘Ensemble of the Year’ at the Canadian Folk Music Awards. Their sophomore album, What We Leave Behind, produced by songwriter/producer Gordie Sampson, will be released in September 2017.

What We Leave Behind carves a new path for The East Pointers, as they continue to blur the lines between traditional and popular music and develop a devoted fan base around the globe.

The ruined aftermath of a bloody civil war. Ruthlessly fighting to survive, the Macbeths are propelled towards the crown by forces of elemental darkness. 

Directed by Rufus Norris

Shakespeare’s most intense and terrifying tragedy, directed by Rufus Norris (The Threepenny Opera, London Road), will see Rory Kinnear (Young Marx, Othello) and Anne-Marie Duff (Oil, Suffragette) return to the National Theatre to play Macbeth and Lady Macbeth.

What if your first true love was someone you’d been told you must hate? 

Set in a world very like our own, this Romeo and Juliet is about a generation of young people born into violence and ripped apart by the bitter divisions of their parents.

The most famous story of love at first sight explodes with intense passion and an irresistible desire for change, but leads all too quickly to heartbreaking consequences.

Music Director John Butt conducts the Dunedin Consort—one of the UK’s leading Baroque ensembles—in Samling Academy Opera’s production of John Blow’s Venus and Adonis and Henry Purcell’s Come, ye Sons of Art.

Featuring Samling Artist Tim Morgan as Cupid and Samling Academy Singers, this production is directed by Samling Artist Miranda Wright and choreographed by Mandy Demetriou.

Don’t miss the chance to witness this double-bill of Blow’s masterpiece, considered the first English opera, and Purcell’s much loved Baroque ode dedicated to Queen Mary.

Samling Academy Opera is generously supported by The Shears Foundation, The Foyle Foundation, Sir James Knott Trust, Community Foundation Tyne & Wear and Northumberland, The Barbour Foundation, Newcastle University, Durham University, Sage Gateshead, The Joicey Trust

Photo credit: Samling Academy singers Rachel Bird and Peter Dunn © Jen Hart, 2017

Winners of the 2016 BBC Radio 2 Folk Award for Best Original Track .

The Rheingans Sisters make playful, powerful and richly connecting music that is wholly contemporary while deeply anchored in folk traditions. Drawing on their pan-European musical scholarship (having studied extensively in France, Sweden and Norway) and their spirited mission to make connections between the music of different geographical roots, they have developed a rich artistic approach to the deconstruction and reimagining of traditional music alongside their own beguiling compositions. Since the release of their award-winning album Already Home (2015) audiences across the UK, Europe and Australia have been captivated by their live performances; as full-hearted performers and on-stage improvisors - via the adventurous use of fiddles, voices, banjo, bansitar, tambourin à cordes, poetry and percussion - The Rheingans Sisters are a unique and unmissable act on the folk and world music stage today. Their hotly anticipated third album 'Bright Field' is released in March 2018.

"Superb" - The Independent

“Magnificent… music you wish to return to again and again” ★★★★★ - Songlines

“The Rheingans Sisters enchanted one and all with their reverie on stage” - The Canberra Times

“Quite simply extraordinary”- fRoots

Troilus and Cressida swear they will always be true to one another. But in the seventh year of the siege of Troy their innocence is tested, and exposed to the savage corrupting influence of war, with tragic consequences.

Virtuoso percussionist Evelyn Glennie collaborates with RSC Artistic Director Gregory Doran to create a satirical futuristic vision of a world resounding with the rhythm of battle, broadcast live to cinemas from Shakespeare's home town.

The Greek army is encamped under the walls of Troy and, at the point at which the play begins, the war has reached stalemate. The Greeks are quarrelling amongst themselves. Achilles, their greatest champion, refuses to fight and has withdrawn to his tent with his lover, Patroclus. Equally at odds with themselves, the Trojans are debating the value of continuing the war merely for the sake of keeping Helen.

Troilus is much distracted from these military concerns by his love for Cressida, the daughter of a Trojan who has defected to the Greek camp. The young lovers are eagerly assisted by Cressida's uncle Pandarus, who acts as their go-between. However, after only one night together they are parted when Cressida is sent to join her father in the Greek camp. Almost immediately she betrays Troilus with the Greek Diomedes and, discovering this, Troilus is plunged into despair.

With the fall of Troy certain, Troilus vows revenge on Achilles.