Set at the turn of the 20th century, this student-written piece tells the story of troubled men as they are faced with love, despair, death and liberation. Infighting, pain and secrets push each other to consider the value of their beliefs and friendship.
Underlying tensions are brought out to the open when Augie is disowned for gambling away his family fortune. As his life unravels, so does Jonah’s as this priest falls further into despair as he is confronted by the seemingly irreconcialiable demands of his beliefs and his sexuality. Bige, orphaned at a young age, is hopelessly in love as his demons begin to take over his world.
Set at the turn of the 20th century, this student-written piece tells the story of troubled men as they are faced with love, despair, death and liberation. Infighting, pain and secrets push each other to consider the value of their beliefs and friendship.
Content Warning: Death, Suicide, Depression, Homophobia, Abuse, Gambling
Tickets:
£6 Standard
£5 Concession
£4 DST and Grey College Students
This event takes place at Fountain's Hall, Grey College, Durham DH1 3LG
Doors will open at 18:30
The Show will start at 19:00
There is a scheduled 15-minute interval during the event.
Book tickets
Thursday 30th November 2023 | 7.00pm | Book tickets |
Friday 1st December 2023 | 7.00pm | Book tickets |
This hilarious Restoration Comedy highlights the ridiculous length that young people will go for love and the danger which romantic notions can lead to when they are allowed to grow unchecked
In order to win the hand of Lydia, a young women with dangerous romantic notions, Captain Jack Absolute pretends to be a poor solider, Ensign Beverley. This leads to many misunderstandings as he attempts to charm her ridiculous aunt and out wit his own father. However, he is not the only suitor and must fight his rivals if he is to be sure of Lydia’s love.
Tickets:
£7.50 Standard
£6.50 Concession
£6.50 DST Members
This event takes place at Sir Thomas Allen Assembly Rooms Theatre
Doors will open at 19:00
The Show will start at 19:30
There will be15-minute interval interval during the event
Book tickets
Thursday 30th November 2023 | 7.30pm | Book tickets |
Friday 1st December 2023 | 7.30pm | Book tickets |
Saturday 2nd December 2023 | 7.30pm | Book tickets |
Oscar Wilde's farcical ridicule of the Victorian cultural landscape continues to delight and amuse audiences 128 years after its first performance. A true must see!
Replete with wit and humour, The Importance of Being Earnest is a comedy that functions on ridiculing the cultural landscape of the Victorian Society. It is a dramatic display of pompous mannerisms, double standards and hypocrisy. Two men create fictitious alter egos to evade tiresome social practices. They pursue women who only want to marry a man named “Ernest”. These premises lead to confusion, misadventure and amusing revelations. As the events unfold, hilarity increases. The play exemplifies Oscar Wilde’s remarkable artistry in every way possible.
Content Warning: Death
Tickets:
£5.50 Standard
£5.50 Concession
£5 DST Members
This event takes place at Old Library, St. John's College South Bailey, DH1 3RJ
Doors will open at 7pm
The Show will start at 7.30pm and finish approximately at 10pm
There is a scheduled 15-minute interval during this event.
Book tickets
Thursday 30th November 2023 | 7.30pm | Book tickets |
Friday 1st December 2023 | 7.30pm | Book tickets |
Saturday 2nd December 2023 | 7.30pm | Book tickets |
The Snow-Globe is proud to present its production of Oscar Wilde’s comedy ‘An Ideal Husband’, a play which continues to captivate audiences with its thrilling mix of scandal and humour.
Set in 19th Century London, An Ideal Husband centres on political corruption, blackmail, love and morality, tempered by Wilde’s characteristic satire. Successful politician and socialite Sir Robert Chiltern has hidden a dark secret from everyone, including his wife – that he made his fortune many years ago from selling a Cabinet secret. When the malicious Mrs Cheveley uncovers an incriminating letter, she attempts to blackmail him into backing a fraudulent scheme which she has heavily invested in. Sir Robert must decide whether to make the morally correct decision or to protect his career and his image as an ‘ideal husband’…
Tickets:
£7 Standard
£6 Concession
£5 John Snow Students
£4.50 DST Members
This event takes place at Mount Oswald Hub DH1 3FR
Doors will open at 18:30
The Show will start at 19:00
There is a scheduled 20-minute interval during the event.
Book tickets
Saturday 2nd December 2023 | 7.00pm | Book tickets |
Sunday 3rd December 2023 | 7.00pm | Book tickets |
Monday 4th December 2023 | 7.00pm | Book tickets |
You will get a entertaining feeling when you hear -
Voices joking, makes you jolly,
Deck the halls with boughs of holly!
Shellshocking around the Christmas tree,
Have a happy holiday -
Everyone laughin' merrily,
At the made-up things we say!
Shellshock! Improvised Comedy, Durham's premier improv comedy group, present their signature blend of scenes and sketches. The show is entirely unscripted and made up on the spot - no two shows are ever the same. Come along for a festive evening of laughter to celebrate the end of term as you give prompts and suggestions to help shape every scene!
Content Warning: The show's improvised so we can't predict the content exactly, but we always strive to avoid heavy topics. There will also be audience participation and possibly some strong language.
Tickets:
£5 Standard
£3.50 DST Members
This event takes is held at TLC 116, DU Teaching and Leaning Centre
Doors will open at 7.15pm
The Show will start at 7.30pm and finish approximately at 8.45pm
Book tickets
Sunday 3rd December 2023 | 7.30pm | Book tickets |
A compilation of performances and student writing designed to address the feminist agenda. Everyday we are expected to perform: under the rule of social structures and in a way which appeases others.
The Suffragette Cabaret promises a night of unapologetically feminist performance including new student writing, and a variety of acting, musical, and singing performances. In collaboration with Revival fashion show, the cabaret will raise money for their chosen charity Stormbreak, with the aim of reclaiming performance to raise funds and awareness for Stormbreak, whilst addressing feminist themes.
Content Warning: Misogyny // Violence // Sexual assault and harassment // Sexism
Tickets:
£6 Standard
£5 Concession
£4.50 DST Members
This event takes place at Durham Students' Union Lounge, Dunelm House DH1 3AN
Doors will open at 19:30
The Show will start at 20:00
There is a scheduled 15-minute interval during the event.
Book tickets
Sunday 3rd December 2023 | 8.00pm | Book tickets |
Follow the Grimms fairy tales characters as they venture into the woods to get their wish and learn the complications of what comes after happily-ever-after.
One of Stephen Sondheim’s most popular works, Into The Woods, is a dark comedy that follows a Baker and his wife who wish to have a child, Cinderella who wishes to attend the King's Festival, and Jack who wishes his cow would give milk. When the Baker and his wife learn that they cannot have a child because of a Witch's curse, the two set off on a journey to break the curse. Everyone's wishes are granted, but the consequences of their actions return to haunt them later with disastrous results.
Content Warning: Strobe lighting, loud sound effects. As is the case with many fairy tales, alongside scenes of magic and wonder, audiences will also experience reference to concepts of consent, sexuality, death, and murder.
Tickets:
£8.50 Standard
£7.50 Concession
£7 DST Members
This event takes place at Sir Thomas Allen Assembly Rooms Theatre
Doors will open at 14:00 (matinee), 19:00
The Show will start at 14:30 (matinee),19:30
There will be a 15-minute interval during the event
Book tickets
Wednesday 6th December 2023 | 7.30pm | Book tickets |
Thursday 7th December 2023 | 7.30pm | Book tickets |
Friday 8th December 2023 | 7.30pm | Book tickets |
Saturday 9th December 2023 | 2.30pm | Book tickets |
Saturday 9th December 2023 | 7.30pm | Book tickets |
We crash into the middle of the One Hundred Years’ War. The men have been fighting for almost a century and France is in pieces. In the middle of all of this, a poor, young, and fierce individual finds God, themself, and the way to return peace to France.
The play follows the historical story of Joan of Arc as they find an instinctive God and amass an army of sinning and working-class heroes to defeat the enemies both without and within France. Along the way, they meet a cast of characters both true to the historical narrative and true to this retelling, all hoping to return God and hope to the war-torn land.
I, Joan premiered first at Shakespeare’s Globe in 2022 to critical acclaim, and tells a story of hope and queer joy, refusing to shy away from complex conversations around historical truth and the transgender experience.
Content Warning: Loud music / Partial nudity / Period-accurate transphobia / Depictions of war / References to sexual abuse
Tickets:
£10 Standard
£8 Concession
£7.50 DST Members
This event takes place at Sir Thomas Allen Assembly Rooms Theatre
The doors will open at 7pm, the show will start at 7.30pm and finish approximately at 10.15pm including a 15-minute interval.
Book tickets
Thursday 25th January 2024 | 7.30pm | Book tickets |
Friday 26th January 2024 | 7.30pm | Book tickets |
Saturday 27th January 2024 | 7.30pm | Book tickets |
HMS Pinafore is a comic operetta that follows the tale of the Captain's daughter 'Josephine' who is torn between her love for a lowly sailor and her duty to marry a man of high esteem. Set on a moored ship in Portsmouth, the operetta uses the classic tale of forbidden love to lampoon the notion of social class.
Gilbert and Sullivan’s comic opera HMS Pinafore is a hilarious story about the conflict between true love and expected duty, set aboard a ship moored in Portsmouth. Josephine, the daughter of the very traditional Captain Corcoran, falls for lowly sailor Ralph Rackstraw, and is torn between him and her father’s plans for her to marry Sir Joseph Porter, the First Lord of the Admiralty.
Many of the meddlesome sisters, cousins and aunts aboard the ship, along with the hapless sailors, hope for a successful partnership for Josephine and Ralph, but their plans to elope are revealed by the dastardly Dick Deadeye. A confrontation between Corcoran, Josephine and Ralph ends in surprising happiness as local woman Buttercup reveals that Corcoran and Ralph were swapped at birth. Ralph is promoted to Captain, and three sets of lovers are united in a joyous and patriotic finale.
Content Warning: Brief mention of suicide / Use of firearms and weapons
Tickets:
£12 Standard
£9 Concession
£7 DST Members
This event takes place at the Sir Thomas Allen Assembly Rooms Theatre
Doors will open at 7pm, matinee at 2pm
The Show will start at 7.30pm and finish approximately at 9.30pm including the 20-minute interval. Saturday matinee from 2.30 to 4.40pm.
Book tickets
Thursday 29th February 2024 | 7.30pm | Book tickets |
Friday 1st March 2024 | 7.30pm | Book tickets |
Saturday 2nd March 2024 | 2.30pm | Book tickets |
Saturday 2nd March 2024 | 7.30pm | Book tickets |
The sun will come up tomorrow. But what if it doesn’t? Six people on the periphery reckon with what and who they have left, when the unfathomable becomes reality.
Wrong Tree presents a newly devised show: ‘Too Close to the Sun’. The sun will come up tomorrow. But what if it doesn’t? Six people on the periphery reckon with what and who they have left, when the unfathomable becomes reality. Against the backdrop of the Arctic, doomsday cults, and outer-space, and inspired by the story of Icarus, this experimental and physical anthology explores what we take most for granted.
Content Warning: Death // Climate Anxiety // Religious Trauma
Tickets:
£7 Standard
£6 Concession
£5 DST Members
This event takes place at Sir Thomas Allen Assembly Rooms Theatre
Doors will open at 18:40
The Show will start at 19:00
Book tickets
Thursday 7th March 2024 | 7.00pm | Book tickets |
Friday 8th March 2024 | 7.00pm | Book tickets |
Saturday 9th March 2024 | 7.00pm | Book tickets |
A gothic inspired adaptation of Shakespeare's most provocative problem play, 'Measure for Measure', follows Isabella in her attempt to save her brother's life against the backdrop of a vice-ridden Vienna.
The Duke has mysteriously left Vienna and his secondary, Anglo is left to rule the city with an unforgiving morality. He begins to punish those who engage in ‘sinful’ debauchery and sexual deviancy. One of his unfortunate prisoners is the sensitive Claudio, who is punished for impregnating his fiancé. Claudio’s sister, Isabella, is dragged from the comfort of her nunnery, to plead with Angelo for the life of her brother. Tackling issue of justice vs. mercy, lust vs. restraint and power vs. truth 'Measure For Measure' asks what power women can have in a world dominated by men and their inescapable objectification.
Content Warning: Sexual assault // Rape // Prostitution // Death
Tickets:
£7.50 Standard
£6.50 DST Members
Free for Under 16's
This event takes place at the Sir Thomas Allen Assembly Rooms Theatre
Doors will open at 7pm, the Show will start at 7.30pm and finish approximately at 10pm including a 15-minute scheduled interval.
Book tickets
Wednesday 13th March 2024 | 7.30pm | Tickets not currently on sale |
Thursday 14th March 2024 | 7.00pm | Tickets not currently on sale |
Friday 15th March 2024 | 7.30pm | Tickets not currently on sale |