Anyone who follows this blog – or sits down next to me for more than 5 minutes – will know I am passionate about the arts, about theatre, and about accessibility. Since moving back to Newcastle I have fallen more than a little in love with many institutions that seem to me to hold the same values: that care not just about putting on a good show or showing a good film, but about serving and engaging with the community they are based in.

I really believe that venues like Alphabetti, Northern Stage, Live Theatre and the Tyneside Cinema are more than just places to see a play or a movie: they add to the cultural tapestry of the city in truly valuable ways. I’ve been a member of the Tyneside since I moved back, but am slightly embarrassed to admit it’s taken me this long to investigate similar schemes at two of the theatres I so regularly attend.

It may seem crazy for a theatre critic – who, after all, gets to see most shows for free – to pay to join a theatre membership scheme, but it’s not just about the benefits (though I do actually regularly buy tickets to shows as well, and, let’s face it, as both Live and Northern Stage offer a discount on drinks at the bar, I’ll have made my money back in a year…). It’s about doing my bit to ensure that these venues thrive. Part of what has made coming back to Newcastle such a glorious experience is its rich arts scene: coughing up a few quid to support it seems like smart self-interest to me.

Interested?

Membership of Northern Stage starts at just £30 for a year (20 if you pay by direct debit, which feels like a steal to me) – you can get details here.

Becoming a Friend of Live Theatre starts at £5 a month (or £60 a year) though there are levels above that if you are feeling particularly flush. You can find details here.

You can become a Friend of The Tyneside Cinema here for around £35 (£30 with direct debit).

Despite still not being able to shake off my hacking cough and a wave of migraines that have made this week *super* fun, I have managed to drag myself out a couple of times, well-stocked with Strepsils so I’m not too annoying in public.

First up was DUPed, a short (yay!) one-man play at Live Theatre about Northern Irish politics. Although it didn’t blow me away – it lacked momentum in a way that I found hard to put my finger on, but which made it slightly less engaging than I wanted it to be. But it was also fascinating and informative both on NI politics and seamed through with justifiable anger at the fact the rest of the UK seems to only notice what is happening when it affects them.

Second up was a show I actually bought tickets for – Imitating the Dog’s Heart of Darkness at Northern Stage. I’d been really keen to see this: I studied Heart of Darkness at university, and despite the fact it’s a problematic book even with the most generous of readings, it’s one that I am always compelled by.

The show, unfortunately, was a real disappointment. Few books are more rife for reinterpretation than Heart of Darkness, and the show highlighted that – just as in Northern Ireland – there’s a tradition of willful ignorance in this country about the misdeeds of Empire (both our own, and other people’s) that have serious repercussions to this day. Certainly, there were some great ideas in there, and it wasn’t afraid to tackle the text, but the show was overlong, heavy handed and was padded with clunky exposition (like, I get why you’ve transposed the action to Europe and the main character to a Black woman – I don’t need half a dozen scenes explaining it in detail). The fact that much of the action was projected onto giant screens where the images and audio were noticeably out of synch didn’t help – having worked in subtitling where I was trained to notice things being a frame out, I’m probably over sensitive to such things, but it distracted me to the point of irritation.

Still, my run of shows this year has been pretty good, I suppose I was due a let down sooner or later…