ARC Stockton spring season

Plus why 9-1-1 is my new comfort show

Hello, and welcome to this week’s Substack. If you enjoy this, please support my writing by sharing, consider becoming a paid subscriber (no extras, as yet, just lots of kudos and a warm feeling in your heart), buying me a one-off Kofi or buying one of my books. The latter comes with the bonus that they are really good reads!

Plus if the election has you in a fightin’ mood, I should maybe remind you that Blood Burns is about a bunch of MAGA-style vampires in New York getting their asses kicked…

This week in theatre

Distracting myself from my terror over the US elections (how is it this close? HOW?) this week I have some fun stuff lined up. I first saw Yippee Ki Yay – a Die Hard parody – at the Customs House South Shields, but it was so much fun that when I found out it was coming to Northern Stage I decided to book again.

After that, there’s the press night for Fixing at Alphabetti, Matt Miller’s show about family, acceptance and, um, car mechanics. I’ve enjoyed Miller’s work before, so looking forward to seeing this. (As usual, the first few dates are pay what you feel, so get in early for a bargain!)

[Image description: cross-stitch: Now I have a machine gun ho-ho-ho]

Spring season at ARC Stockton

ARC Stockton is one of those venues I would spend a lot more time at if I drove or we didn’t have such a broken public transport system, because it’s a great venue that consistently programmes interesting things. (I can actually get a train to Stockton literally outside my house. But, this being the UK, there’s only one an hour, they often get cancelled, and the last train back is so early I’d have to leave a show halfway to catch it. Damn you, privatisation!)

But I am hoping to make a few more visits next year, and an exciting spring season might be the incentive I need. Many of the shows are pay what you feel, too, so a bargain in these pricey times!

As usual, the venue offers a huge array of different kinds of shows, events and classes. The comedy line-up includes shows by Sophie Duker, Rachel Fairburn, Lucy Porter and Ed Byrne, as well as regular comedy club nights.

Theatre-wise, there’s a really interesting, eclectic line up. Rum is a play about ‘masculinity, mental health and addiction’, looking at the life of plasterer Danny who needs to finish a big job against the clock, which was the winner of the Broadway Baby Bobby Award. Tim Foley’s Driftwood is a the story of two North East brothers trying to figure out what to do with their dad, and was a finalist for the Offie’s Best Online Production.

I saw Daniel Bye’s Imaginary Friends at Alphabetti, and while I didn’t quite love it as much as a lot of people did – and a lot of people I spoke to really loved it, so feel free to take their word over mine – it’s a fun, imaginative piece and Bye is always an engaging storyteller.

One show I am desperate to see is Vici Wreford-Sinnott’s Unruly. Directed by Bex Bowsher and with music by Beccy Owen, this look at female friendship, activism and disability rights sounds exactly up my street.

Another highlight is Open Clasp’s Rupture. Open Clasp remain one of my favourite companies, and I’ve never seen a show of theirs that disappointed. Written by Catrina McHugh and directed by Rachel Glover, this was created in collaboration with women from HMP Low Newton and examines the reality of being a mother in prison.

A lesser-known quantity to me, but the title alone – Look After Your Knees – makes me want to see Natalie Bellingham’s new show.

I’m a big fan of James Rowland – I’ve seen / reviewed a number of his shows, and he was also very nice when I cornered him in the bar at Live to tell him as much (yes, yes, I am that weirdo, sorry, Mr Rowland). Learning to Fly sounds very much in his usual vein of personal storytelling, so I will definitely try to catch it.

Created as part of ARC’s Make New Work programme, Roisin Crowley Linton’s Not Yours uses circus, cabaret, burlesque and theatre to examine the aftermath of sexual violence, in what sounds like a powerful production, while SealSkin uses music, projection and puppetry to tell the stories of the mythical selkies.

And while I mentioned Luke Wright’s Joy in my Northern Stage round up, he is also taking the show to ARC.

Theatre to book now

Arts Centre Washington is another venue I go to less than I would like due to transport issues, but I do like the sound of Nightmares by The Book of Darkness & Light, which brings three ghost stories to the stage, including one by Bram Stoker. It’s a great venue - not only the theatre but the gallery space - so definitely on my ‘must get to more' list for next year.

Debt at Laurels

I mentioned Si Beckwith and Gavin Webster’s Round the Houses at Laurels a few weeks back, so I was sad to see that it had been cancelled due the grim irony that the creatives involved couldn’t put on a three-week run of a show about the damage of debt without getting back into serious debt themselves. In response to the cancellation, Laurels will be instead staging a one-off showcase of shorts ‘Debt’ in November and Beckwith is doing a shorter-run show Swallowed in December, both of which I hope to see.

Speaking of Laurels, I notice Tom Waits for No Man is returning in December. This sultry take on Waits’ songs makes for a great Sunday afternoon gig, so I’d definitely recommend getting tickets.

New Writing at Live

The next writing showcase comes to Live in November, giving you a chance to check out new work. Priced at a very reasonable £6 a ticket (the website, annoyingly, comes up with a ‘plus donation’ price first so always scroll down to find the right price!) this is a no-risk night out. Though the quality of work at such events is always variable by the nature of the evening, I always find the atmosphere is great, and you get the smug points of being able to say further down the line, ‘oh that Netflix show? I saw that when it was still in development at Live, of course’.

What I have been reading

While I admit I have never read a single Agatha Christie novel, I am a fan of adaptations of her work, and Miss Marple is one of my favourite characters. So, I very much enjoyed Mark Aldridge’s Agatha Christie’s Marple: A Study in Wickedness, an in-depth look at the history of the character, with analysis of the books, short stories and radio, stage and screen adaptations, including how they were received (and how Christie herself reacted to those that came out during her lifetime). Detailed and thorough while remaining very readable – and somehow managing not to give away the murderers’ identities, which I feel Christie would have approved of – this is a tome of a book but I made fairly fast work of it.

[Image description: Agatha Christie’s Marple: Expert on Wickedness by Mark Aldridge]

What I have been watching

I spent the weekend rewatching s2 of Interview with the Vampire and blimey, it’s a show that stands up to a second watch. Packed with sublime details, and top shelf performances - Assad Zaman in particular is a revelation this season - it’s honestly one of the best pieces of TV I’ve seen in years, and a better adaptation of the material than we could have hoped for, faithful in spirit but not afraid to jettison the bits that no longer work for a contemporary audience.

I’m also thrilled that my comfort watch, 9-1-1, has hit Disney in the UK, after the new season launched in the US a few weeks back. Equal parts silly and serious, this slick, super-fun firefighters show boasts a top notch cast - Angela Bassett! Peter Krause! ANGELA BASSETT! - and serves up over-the-top disasters every week (Tsunami! Earthquake! Escaped zoo animals! A shark! LA-wide cyber hack! Very, very occasionally - an actual fire.)

But it also offers characters you really come to care for and stories that truly grip, served up by an engaging cast with genuine chemistry. This includes - alongside Bassett and Krause, who are also producers - well-known faces like Aisha Hinds and Broadway star Tracie Thoms (playing a married couple - with Thoms as an actual rocket scientist! Sorry, but if you do not love Hen and Karen, we can’t be friends) and Jennifer Love Hewitt, who also has fantastic chemistry with onscreen husband Kenneth Choi. (Having been married to a hot firefighter paramedic in Ghost Whisperer, onscreen JLH clearly has a type!) (A big chunk of the fandom is currently desperate to see if the similarly insane chemistry of Ryan Guzman (Eddie) and Oliver Stark (Buck), who round out the core cast, will be rewarded with a canon romance in this very queer—friendly show. Seriously, my timeline is as full of that as it is election news). The three-episode s8 opening arc was an absolute corker and Bobby Nash meeting his wife’s plane in LA - IYKYK - is now forever the epitome of romance for me.

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.

Remember: everything included is my personal preference / opinion, and while I strive to be accurate, I always advising checking with the relevant venue.