Theatre's autumn season kicks off
Plus a summer of sexy vampires and watching Jennifer Love Hewitt cry
Hello! Welcome back to my Substack. I hope whatever you got up to in August was fun and you are as happy as I am to be heading into autumn, AKA, the best season. Yes, I love September – and not just because it’s my birthday month! (Sorry, you’ll be hearing about that a lot for the rest of the month…)
[Image description: image on yellow with the text: A super fun romcom with a fresh Newcastle setting, The Bridesmaid Blues by Tracey Sinclair]
I never feel like making resolutions or a fresh start in January – it’s dark, rainy and everybody’s broke and hungover – but I can never get over the sense of September as a new term. (Yes, I realise this makes me sound like a big ole nerd). The chance to crack open a pristine notebook, stock up on stationery supplies and reinvent yourself, even just a little? Count me in.
Luckily this aligns with the theatre calendar, too. After the dog days of summer and the heady chaos of Edinburgh Fringe – which I avoided this year – theatres are kicking off their autumn seasons, and once again in Newcastle and the North East we have so much to look forward to.
And before I start, a little reminder – I’m trying to keep all the content on this free for as long as I can, but you can help by sharing my posts, subscribing for free or paid, buying me a Ko-fi or buying one of my books for yourself or a friend (and this last one also gets you more fun reads…)
Also - while I only include things in this newsletter that I think sound genuinely interesting (there are so many great objective guides out there, I figure the one thing I can add is the weight of my opinion!), I am always on the look out for shows to include, so if that’s you, do feel free to let me know…
Fringe (and other) hits coming to Newcastle
One of the best things about not going to Edinburgh Fringe – aside from not being charged £8.50 for a cheese sandwich YES, I AM STILL MAD – is that you get to hear which shows were hits before you buy tickets, so minimising your risk a little. And we are lucky enough that Newcastle is hosting some of the things that got great press this year.
My Mother’s Funeral: The Show was one of the Fringe’s big hits, winning a Fringe First award and garnering great reviews. (It’s also the show I was messaged most about by friends who were in Edinburgh – I got several ‘you will really like this!’ WhatsApps). A story about class, the arts and loss, by turns funny and powerful, this is one show you shouldn’t miss (though I am gutted it’s coming to Northern Stage on a date I cannot make! Please come back again later!)
Also coming to Northern Stage on the back of great reviews (and personal recs) is Bullring Techno Makeout Jamz, Nathan Queeley-Dennis’ award-winning debut about Blackness, Birmingham and Beyoncé lyrics.
Still at Northern Stage, An Evening Without Kate Bush returns after selling out on its last visit, so you’d be advised to get booking now. Again on a night I can’t go, CURSE my active social life.
Over at Live, the gloriously silly-sounding Gwyneth Goes Skiing takes at irreverent look at the trial of Goop maven Gwyneth after she collided with someone on a ski slope. This has already garnered great reviews and looks to be a super fun night out.
If you want to read some thoughtful coverage of the Fringe (and Scottish / international theatre generally) I am once again recommending Natasha Tripney’s Café Europa – which for my money (and I actually do pay real money to read it*) is the best theatre newsletter out there – and Fergus Morgan’s excellent The Crush Bar. Both offer free and paid options.
*Also, in gin and prosecco, since Tasha tends to visit me after her Fringe stint and give me lots of useful recs for upcoming shows…
The new season kicks off
Northern Stage’s big autumn show is a fresh take on a cult classic, with director Jack Bradfield’s version of Mike Leigh’s Abigail’s Party. Expect social awkwardness and shagpile carpet galore! I’m already picking my dress for the premiere and bemoaning that none of my vintage seventies maxi dresses survived my move from London. Then again, most of them were made of the kind of highly flammable fabric l that would go up like a Roman candle if someone brushed me with a lit cigarette, so probably that’s for the best from a health and safety perspective.
Over at Live, there’s another chance to see Love It If We Beat Them, returning after a successful run last year. A story of Newcastle United, New Labour and how the changing fortunes of both affect one family, Rob Ward’s story got a 4* review from me in The Stage when it premiered and is definitely worth seeing.
Laurels in Whitley Bay has a really exciting season of new writing lined up, kicking off with Peachplant’s ambitious Subterranea. Written by Carl Wylie and Lucy Curry, and co-directed by Curry and Paula Penman (a director whose work I am a big fan of), this story of a post-apocalyptic North East sounds very promising indeed.
Although only a short-run production, A Class Feeling – This is Makina! at the Customs House South Shields deserves a mention. Admittedly I am too old and uncool to know what Makina is (google tells me it’s a form of techno?) but, written by Christina Berriman Dawson, this story of working class lives and ambition is worth checking out.
Alphabetti’s autumn offering is bittersweet, as we come to the end of AD and founder Ali Pritchard’s run at the theatre and welcome new AD Ed Cole. The Nurse’s Station, directed and co-written by Pritchard, is based on the real-life experiences of nurses, and features music by co-writer Ruth Lyon. Lyon – formerly frontperson of Holy Moly and the Crackers – is an amazingly talented musician and singer, so her involvement in this makes it even more of a must-see for me. (If you want to hear her amazing vocals, check out the video for Cold Comfort Lane, which was on the Ocean’s 8 soundtrack).
What I have been watching
While I’d like to pretend that I spent summer watching intellectual documentaries and hip new movies, I mostly watched Jennifer Love Hewitt cry. (I am rewatching Ghost Whisperer and 9-1-1 at the moment, in both of which JLH cries copiously and beautifully, while being consoled by her attractive and supportive firefighter partner - clearly I have predictable tastes in my viewing). Don’t judge me – both shows are totally addictive, and 9-1-1 boasts the stellar presence of my eternal fave Angela Bassett and my long-term crush Peter Krause.
The thing I am most excited about on TV right now is the return of Only Murders in The Building, which this year migrates from Broadway to Hollywood, having a lot of fun on the way.
I did find time to watch Death and Other Details, which felt clearly designed to appeal to the Only Murders crowd. This story of death on the high seas is elevated by a great cast (including Mandy Patinkin, Rahul Kohli and a whole bunch of ‘whose that guy’ character actors such as Jere Burns, Jayne Atkinson and Linda Edmond – you’ll know ‘em when you see ‘em.) Quirky and clever, with an enjoyable and relatable theme of ‘rich people are terrible’, it never quite reached the level of gripping I wanted it to. The characterisation felt a bit patchy and the plot very far-fetched, but I nonetheless enjoyed it. It’s also only 10 episodes long, so you can do the whole thing in a week (or, cough, a weekend, if you like staying in and staying up late, I name no names).
I also enjoyed Deadloch, another murder series with a deliberately – although initially annoying – quirkiness. I admit that, had I not been told to stick with it, I would have dropped out after the first episode. The comedy can be very broad and the characters, particularly that of incoming detective Eddie (Madeliene Sami), were often irritating. But if you stick with it, this story of small-town murder calms down a little and blossoms into something quite compelling, with interesting things to say about patriarchy, colonialism and gentrification.
And finally – I’m pretty sure I mentioned this in July, but all of Interview with the Vampire season 2 is now on iPlayer and it is SO, SO good. It’s particularly great to see Assad Zaman come into his own after having little to do but play Minecraft on his iPad for most of last season*.
It takes a while to get used to the new Claudia – Delainey Hayles taking over from Bailey Bass due to scheduling issues – but once you get over the change, Hayles is really quite heartbreaking. Overall, the casting is incredible, the chemistry between the actors absolutely sizzles, and the writing is off the charts smart and gripping. Plus, this series, like the first, manages to balance feeling like a relatively faithful adaptation of the books (at least in spirit, if not always exactly in plot) without being unduly tethered to material that has not always dated well.
*No, really: he admitted that in an interview!
(And: SPOILER! If you really want to have fun check out the trailers for Season 3, which sees the rockstar Lestat storyline kick in and promises to be an absolute riot. I’m already obsessed with the song, as shown by the cross-stitch below…)
[Image description: cross-stitch on blood spatter fabric - Here come the gays, here comes the fear]
Books at the Biscuit Factory
I have read a lot over the summer, with my recent fave being What’s Next, Melissa Fitzgerald and Mary McCormack’s insider account of the TV series The West Wing and the stories of service that the cast have carried out, often inspired by the show. Packed with anecdotes (although, alas, the UK edition doesn’t have the photos that come with the US one), this is a fantastic read, even if all the bits about the late, great John Spencer will make you cry.
Set during the Wars of the Roses – a period I am a little obsessed with – Annie Garthwaite’s Cecily was one of the most accomplished debuts I have read in years, so I was excited to find out she had written a sequel. The King’s Mother continues the story of Cecil Neville once her son Edward has taken the throne, and is just as compelling as the previous book, giving us a rounded and convincing insight into a clever and accomplished woman. If that sounds like your thing, you might be interested in checking out An Evening with Annie Garthwaite at the Biscuit Factory in September, one of a series of author events they are doing in conjunction with Forum Books (other authors include dancer Janette Manrara and thriller superstar Jo Nesbo).
Speaking of books, I spent some time this messing about with Canva making book promo posts, since I realised I need to up my game on the book promo front. It’s actually been a lot of fun and netted some great results – lots of nice messages from people who enjoyed my books, and, even better, lots of ‘ooh, that’s prompted me to do a reread!’ (Trust me, as an author, being read at all is a privilege – but being reread? Someone liking your books enough to read them more than once – sometimes, even multiple times? Well, that’s what you live for.)
Anyway, if you fancy giving them a go yourself, do check them out. You can also read a little snippet I wrote off the back of my IWTV obsession here.
Thanks again for reading – please do share with your friends! Every new subscriber really does give me a boost. And remember if you want to support my writing but a paid subscription isn’t for you (times are hard, I get it!), you can buy me a one-off Ko-fi or buy one of my books. Think of it as a birthday gift (yes, I will be milking this all month!)
Unless you are one of my IRL friends, in which case I want an actual gift, obviously.
Remember: everything included is my personal preference / opinion, and while I strive to be accurate, I always advising checking with the relevant venue.
[Image description: Black box with the text: Your next sexy vampire read starts here - Dark Dates by Tracey Sinclair]