Review - Picnic at hanging Rock - People's Theatre

Picnic at Hanging Rock 

People's Theatre

12th Oct 2026

Adapted by Tom Wright from the novel by Joan Lindsay

Directed by Matthew Hope and Erin Robinson

Cast: Ashleigh Gloyne, Oryssa Sahota, Ashton Matthews, Abii Smith, Lauren Urmson

Picnic at Hanging Rock is a strange tale. A group of students from a girls academy are taken on an outing to Hanging Rock in the Australian Bush. Before they leave the headmistress warns them to behave in a seemly manner as befits them as young ladies and students of the Appleyard Academy: they are not to explore the rocks. It's Valentine's Day and the girls heads are full of romance.  The weather is hot and oppressive. At the picnic the girls decide to investigate the rock - walking through the heat of the bush and climbing the rock. Strange things begin to happen - the girls are overcome by the vastness of the country and the rock, the strangeness of their surroundings. The heat becomes unbearable and the girls begin to experience strange feelings and sensations - they squabble amongst themselves, daring themselves to go further than is sensible. Afraid of what seems to be happening one girl goes back to the picnic area while the others continue to climb. Something mystical in the atmosphere of the rock overtakes them. A search ensues, and others experience the mystery of the rock but apart from one, the girls are never seen again. 

The set is minimal - packing crates, moved around by the cast members, serve as a horse-drawn carriage, seats in the school, a fallen log, and the ominous rock itself. A soundscape of bird calls - kuckaburras? - creates the atmosphere of the Australian bush. 

The play takes the form a dramatic storytelling - with each of the cast narrating sections of the story.  Each actor in this all female cast plays dual parts, including the male characters. They slip from one character to another almost imperceptibly. It is confusing and perhaps that is the intention - the events at Hanging Rock can't be explained, the characters themselves don't understand what is happening to them as they are overcome by the eerie, otherness of the landscape. Has something supernatural happened or have these impressionable young women simply been over come by heat and fanciful imaginings? 

The audience is left to draw its own conclusions. 

Picnic at Hanging Rock is an intense, challenging play - it put me in mind of Conrad's Heart of Darkness or Theroux's Mosquito Coast - questioning perceptions of the natural world and the idea of our own civilisation. We seek to control the things we do not understand, and in doing so simply create a different kind of wildness. 

This production will leave you with more questions than answers. It runs until 17th October. 

Denise Sparrowhawk

*images by Paul Hood

Preview - Spooky Season at the People's Theatre

This October, the People’s Theatre in Heaton are bringing two gripping tales of mystery, disappearance and the supernatural.

From the eerie beauty of PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK to the chilling suspense of 2:22 – A GHOST STORY, spooky season has never looked so good!

On a summer’s day in 1900, a school picnic at Hanging Rock, the volcanic beauty spot in rural Australia, takes a terrifying turn when three girls and a teacher disappear without trace.

Tom Wright’s haunting stage adaptation of Joan Lindsay’s celebrated novel brings this enduring mystery to life in a compelling theatrical exploration of memory, myth and the unknowable.

Five performers conjure the world of Appleyard College and the events surrounding that fateful picnic, shifting between characters, recollections and competing versions of what might have happened. As the boundaries between fact and imagination begin to blur, the search for answers becomes increasingly unsettling.

Beautiful, strange and deeply atmospheric, PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK is a story about the things we cannot explain, and the stories we create to make sense of them.

Then later in October, the People’s are bringing award-winning stage phenomenon 2:22 – A GHOST STORY to their stage!

New parents Jenny and Sam are settling into their new home. But every night at exactly 2:22am, Jenny hears footsteps on the baby monitor circling their daughter’s cot. Is the house haunted?

When friends arrive for a housewarming, a late-night debate about ghosts, belief and scepticism takes a sinister turn. They decide to stay awake until 2:22am, then they’ll know …

This gripping supernatural thriller is written by former People’s Theatre member Danny Robins, and directed by Anna Dobson.

Anna and Danny have been friends since they were in Youth Theatre together, and Anna comments: “Danny was always incredibly creative and loved making theatre, so it came as no surprise to me that he went on to build such a successful career. I’m immensely proud of everything he has achieved, and it feels very special to stage his play in the place where his own love of theatre began.”

Tickets are available from the People’s Theatre Box Office on 0191 265 5020 (option 2) and online at www.peoplestheatre.co.uk

Review - Outside Edge - Royalty Theatre

Outside Edge

Royalty Theatre 

22nd Sept  2026  

The Royalty Theatre launched the new season with a very English comedy - Outside Edge - set in the club house of the local cricket club on the day they play their bitter rivals. Under the pressure to beat the visiting team, cracks begin to appear and all is not quite so gentlemanly on the pitch or in the clubhouse. Personalities clash and secrets are hinted at and then unveiled. Relationships crumble under the pressure to win - at life as well as cricket. 

The characters are all a little bit larger than life - from Roger, the bombastic team captain, full of his own importance, cajoling and bullying his team (and his wife) into submission to Miriam, his wife, somewhat self effacing, but taking full pride in the quality of her teas, who knows that she is the only one keeping the club running smoothly and efficiently. 

Then there is Bob, probably the best cricketer in the club but with a complicated personal life - juggling his ex-wife and his new wife, and bowing under the weight of trying to keep both wives and the club captain happy. Dennis is the lecherous womanizer, trying his luck with everyone's wife and girlfriend, while ignoring his own - though we never see his wife, she gets her revenge off stage. The men are all out to prove themselves to each other - better at cricket, better at their jobs, better cars, better houses, better wives...yet it is the women who re the winners - mostly - in this club, with the exception of Sharon, the wives tend to come out on top. 

There are some laugh out loud moments in this play, and some cringeworthy moments too - it was first staged in 1979 so this is probably to be expected! Andrew Barella as Roger, and Lee Wilkins as Bob give commanding peformances and keep the comedy flowing. Lee and Kori Johnson (Miriam) also give excellent, performances of drunkenness....Bob's three small whiskies having a dramatic drunken effect, while Miriam slowly imbibes and entire bottle of wine and descends into a gentle inebriation - both upholding a tradition in local theatre for convincing drunken acting! 

Overall this was an entertaining evening - (even if some of the entertainment came from the wobbly set  - I'd recommend moving the chairs away from the wall a couple of inches!) very English, farcical, and funny yet truly identifiable characters - am sure anyone who has been a member of a sports club will recognise the types - and this is perhaps where the best humour is found - in recognising the truth in the people we see on stage.

Outside Edge runs until 26th September. Tickets are available online at www.royaltytheatre.co.uk or on the door.

Denise Sparrowhawk 

Review - The Girl on the Train - People's Theatre

The Girl on the Train 

People's Theatre

14th July 2026

Adapted for the stage by

Rachel Wagstaff and Duncan Abel

Directed by Sam Sanford

If you need a distraction from the football you could do worse than pay a visit to The People's Theatre in Newcastle this week for their production of  The Girl on the Train. 

Adapted from the novel by Paula Hawkins this dark, psychological thriller presents some challenges for a theatre production. The story involves train journeys (always a challenge to reproduce on stage),  flashbacks involving multiple characters, and potentially several scene changes. 

All this before we even get to the characters themselves, with their many layers of self deception. In particular Rachel Watson, the lead character, who searches for solace from her fractured world in alcohol. Her perception of reality is blurred by drink and fantasy. Director Sam Sanford manages to pull all of this together and create a production which is taut and atmospheric. The set is minimal - a mattress on the floor to represent Rachel's home, a sofa and drinks cabinet for Scott Hipwell's apartment, and rug and a baby's rocker for Anna and Tom's home. Chairs are brought on to represent the interview room at the police station, or the psychiatrist's office. While centre stage a cleverly lit tunnel represents the train, and the subway - almost a character in itself, this tunnel lights up, pulsates, and darkens as each aspect of the characters' stories is revealed. The flashbacks are created with a series of  screens that are lit to show each scenario as Rachel remembers and gradually pieces together the events of the fateful night. A pulsating sound track adds to the atmosphere and drama with the lighting and sound every bit as important in this play as the actors playing the parts. 

The cast all give excellent performances but Kate Plass as Rachel is superb - we see a broken woman gradually find herself, disentngling her own fantasies and the nightmare that inspired them, she solves a murder and finds redemption for herself and closure for the other characters. 

Even if you have read the book, or seen the film, you will be enthralled by this cleverly staged, tense thriller.  

*images by Paul Hood

Denise Sparrowhawk

Review - The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - People's Theatre

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time

People's Theatre

9th June, 2026

This play by Simon Stephens, based on the novel by Mark Haddon is something of a revelation. I have tried several times to read the book and have not got past the first few pages. I always felt something of a failure for not being able to appreciate a book that everyone else seemed to be raving about. So it was with mixed feelings I took my seat in the auditorium. 

The scene that greeted us was intriguing...maths equations adorned large blackboards on either side of the stage and glowed from a screen at the back. Another source of concern for me - maths was never my strong suit (I have a glorious "unclassified O-Level, for those of you old enough to know what O-levels are/were). And a dead dog lay front and centre, impaled with a garden fork (obviously not an actual dead dog, just a prop - no dogs - or later rats - were harmed in the making of this production!) - the dead dog of the title. This being the People's Theatre,  I was pretty certain, despite my misgivings about the book and maths, that though whatever was coming might be challenging, it would also certainly be interesting and entertaining. 

 

 I don't want to give away any spoilers for anyone who, like me, has not read the book, and doesn't know who killed Wellington (the dead dog) so I am going to concentrate on the characters and actors rather than the plot. Firstly Zachary Douglas creates a character in Christopher who is completely credible and endearing. - a young man  negotiating his way through a world that doesn't really understand him, using numbers, and facts, and truth, as his touchstones.  His forthright observations on people are brutally honest and this creates unexpected humour in the play.

Alison Carr brings the practical and empathetic teacher Siobhan to life, providing the stable, matter of fact grounding for Christopher, her presence becomes one of his touchstones, she providing the support and constancy he needs, especially when things begin to unravel for him. She is the voice of reason. 

Sean Burnside plays Christopher's father, Ed. A man who loves his son, but is struggling to cope with his special needs while also dealing with his own demons and the anger and frustration and guilt that they bring. He swerves from calm, loving patience to volatile anger, and back again, almost losing everything when he loses Christopher's trust. 

Alongside Burnside's father figure we have Christopher's mother, Judy - played by Sarah Jo Harrison. Another volatile character she appears first as a memory from Christopher's childhood, happy and full of life, but with a strange sadness. Through letters we learn of her feelings of inadequacy as a mother as she compares her relationship with Christopher to that with his father. There is clearly a bond between father and son that she felt excluded from, which makes the loss of trust that Christopher experiences all the more poignant. But we see that there was also a bond with his mother that he was unable to express at the time.

And finally there is the ensemble who weave in and out of the story, creating the subsidiary characters, the neighbours, the policemen, the public. They stand to attention in the background, or drift into the flow of the story as needed, shedding light and sometimes doubt on the proceedings. 

This is a play about complex emotions, difficult situations, about individual needs and family ties. It's about trust, and truth and betrayal. But it is also about love, and healing and individuality. 

It s beautifully and cleverly staged - incorporating light and music - with movement and sound that is sometime soft and almost balletic, and other times harsh and jarring, mirroring the emotions and events that take place. 

Intense, inspiring and emotional, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time is cleverly staged, and beautifully performed. Well worth seeing. 

*images by Paul Hood

Denise Sparrowhawk 

Preview - The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - People's Theatre

Showing this week at the People’s Theatre in Heaton: THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT-TIME, the acclaimed stage adaptation of Mark Haddon’s bestselling novel.

“I am going to find out who killed Wellington and make it a project. Even though Father told me not to.”

At seven minutes after midnight, fifteen-year-old Christopher Boone discovers his neighbour’s dog dead in the street. Determined to uncover the truth, Christopher embarks on a detective mission that takes him far beyond the end of his road for the very first time. What begins as a mystery becomes an extraordinary journey that will change his life forever.

Funny, moving, and visually captivating, THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT-TIME invites audiences to experience the world through Christopher’s eyes in a powerful exploration of family, trust, courage, and what it means to be different.

Following worldwide acclaim and multiple award-wins (including seven Olivier Awards for the National Theatre’s 2012 premiere), this gripping adaptation brings Christopher’s unforgettable adventure from Swindon to London vividly to life on stage.

Tickets are available from the People’s Theatre Box Office on 0191 265 5020 (option 2) and online at www.peoplestheatre.co.uk

Review to follow (assuming I can get through the Take That traffic on the A19!) 

Review - The Unfriend - People's Theatre

The Unfriend

People's Theatre

28th April, 2026

Written by Steven Moffat

Directed by Ian Willis

Cast:

Peter Lindel - Daniel Magee

Debbie Lindel - Helen Parker

Elsa J Krakowski - Ann Zunder

Alex Lindel - Jamie Cordes

Rosie Lindel - Sarah Jane Fisher

The Neighbour - Mark Buckley

PC Junkin - Steve Parry

Presenter - Simon Patrick Dowling

Peter and Debbie Lindel meet Elsa on a cruise holiday. Too polite to say no, give her their email to stay in touch after the holiday - Elsa has conveniently mislaid the cards she had especially printed to give out should she happen to meet people she wants to stay in touch with. This, perhaps, should have been the first alarm bell for Peter and Debbie. Once home she inundates them with emails until they eventually run out of polite excuses and offer to let her come visit them while she is in London.  As her arrival date draws near, Debbie decides to google their soon to be house guest and what she finds puts her in a spin. Elsa is a suspected murderer - but insufficient evidence means she has never been brought to trial. As Peter and Debbie try to summon up the gumption to email Elsa and tell her they have to cancel the trip, a surprise video call comes through. Elsa is here, outside their front door, two days early. She arrives with news that her friend from the cruise - now living in London - has died, unexpectedly. 

Faced with the unexpected early arrival of their guest, and their newly acquired knowledge of her past, Peter and Debbie must find a way past their very English politeness and ask her to leave. The main problem with this is that everyone, and especially their two teenage children, really like Elsa.

The Unfriend is a hilariously funny play about a pretty dark situation. Can you like someone who has committed murder? Would you trust them? Would you eat a sandwich made by them? 

How would you broach the subject of their past?  It is also a clash of cultures - polite English manners versus American brashness, with both the English couple and the American woman avoiding the issue while trying to deal with it. 

The cast are all brilliant at their different roles - Daniel Magee, as Peter, adept at avoiding confrontation at all costs, and Helen Parker as his highly strung wife, desperately trying to keep it together and eventually spectacularly failing! While Jamie Cordes and Sarah Jane Fisher are the epitomy of teenage surliness. Ann Zunder sails along as Elsa - the lovable, wise-cracking, suspected murderess. 

My favourite, however was the long-suffering Neighbour - Mark Buckley's almost deadpan performance is fabulous. A man destined never to understand the depth of indifference felt by his neighbours towards his most important issues!

Set almost entirely within the living room and kitchen of an English home, this situation comedy is full of the kind of humour that the Brits do so well, and at which the team at the People's excel. 

You have two more chances to catch it -  book a ticket and get there! 

Denise Sparrowhawk

Preview - The Unfriend - People's Theatre

Hilarious hit comedy THE UNFRIEND at the People’s Theatre in Heaton next week.

When good manners might just be the death of you ...!

This comedy by acclaimed writer Steven Moffat (Doctor Who, Sherlock) is full of laughs, fast-paced dialogue, and outrageous misunderstandings!

When Peter and Debbie meet the eccentric Elsa during a cruise, they never imagine she’ll take up their casual invitation to visit them. But months later, Elsa arrives on their doorstep, turning their orderly lives upside down.

As her unsettling stories (as well as an alarming Google search!) begin to raise suspicions, one question becomes impossible to ignore … what if Elsa is a murderer?

Caught between growing panic and their desperate need to remain polite, Peter and Debbie find themselves trapped in a spiralling farce. After all, how do you uninvite someone without being rude?

Packed with laugh-out-loud comedy and ever escalating chaos, THE UNFRIEND proves good manners can be absolutely murderous!

Tickets are available from the People’s Theatre Box Office on 0191 265 5020 (option 2) and online at www.peoplestheatre.co.uk

Review - The Thrill of Love - People's Theatre

The Thrill of Love

People's Theatre

13th April, 2026

Written by Amanda Whittington

Directed by Tony Childs

Cast

Ruth Ellis - Emma Robson

Inspector Gale - Steve Hewitt

Sylvia - Moira Valentine

Vickie - Hattie Easton

Doris - Emily Jeffrey

The Thrill of Love tells a story of ambition, passion and murder. The story of Ruth Ellis, the last woman to be hanged in Britain. The mystery here is not who committed murder, Ruth Ellis confessed and there were witnesses who saw her fire the gun at David Blakely. The mystery is more complex; what drove her to commit such a crime? Who, if anyone, helped her? But also why did her trial and execution happen with such speed and against such a surge of public protest? 

Amanda Whittington's play reveals the very human woman behind the murderer. She peels back the curtain to show us two sides of Ruth's world. The world of the gentleman's club, a world of entitlement and glamour with a mean and sordid underbelly. 

Against a sparse set, and a Billie Halliday sound track, the five members of the cast bring this tale to life, and death. We watch as the Ruth's life disintegrates, as the dream she has chased turns to nightmare. The brittle gaiety of Ruth and Vicky hides a desperate ambition - to be someone, to be rich, to be loved. Against Emma Robson's passionate performance we have Moira Valentine's understated portrayal of the practical but jaded Sylvia - keeping an eye out for the girls but always watching her own back, and Emily Jeffrey's Dora - full of compassion and good sense - fights to keep Ruth safe.

The women's performances are impassioned and emotional and heartbreaking glimpses into a life we can barely imagine, while Steve Hewitt give a quietly compelling performance as Inspector Gale, as he tries to unpick the crime to find the elusive truth and some redemption for Ruth. 

It's a tough story but it has moments of humour - a dark humour that I think is peculiarly British that serves to highlight the tragedy. 

There is no tidy ending to this story - Ruth Ellis committed a murder and was hanged for it and the ripples spread far beyond her death. 

The Thrill of Love plays until Saturday in the studio.

Denise Sparrowhawk

Preview - The Thrill of Love - People's Theatre

Love, betrayal, and murder...

Coming next at the People’s Theatre in Heaton: Amanda Whittington’s THE THRILL OF LOVE which brings to life the gripping and tragic story of Ruth Ellis, the last woman to be hanged in Britain.

Set against the seedy glamour of 1950s London, this compelling drama delves beneath the sensational headlines to reveal the complex woman at its heart.

Blending known facts with imagined scenarios, Whittington’s acclaimed play offers a fresh perspective on a story that captivated the country and explores the events that led Ellis to commit murder.

Part noir thriller, part intimate character study, THE THRILL OF LOVE paints a vivid portrait of a world of smoky nightclubs, dangerous liaisons, and fragile dreams. At its core lies a deeply human story of love, betrayal, and the devastating consequences of both. 

Director Tony Childs comments: “This is a great piece of drama.  People might know the name Ruth Ellis, without perhaps knowing much about Ruth herself.  The play focuses on her character, rather than her guilt.  We see her nature, and the way she disintegrates.”

 THE THRILL OF LOVE is a haunting and poignant exploration of passion and power, shining a light on the personal tragedy behind one of Britain’s most infamous cases.

 Tickets are available from the People’s Theatre Box Office on 0191 265 5020 (option 2) and online at www.peoplestheatre.co.uk