Northern Ballet Announces National Tour Of Robin Hood, A New Ballet For Children

Northern Ballet’s beloved ballets for children return with Robin Hood, an adventurous retelling choreographed by Northern Ballet Soloist Heather Lehan. Friendship and bravery lead the way as Robin Hood and Maid Marian try to outwit the greedy Sheriff of Nottingham. Facing unexpected challenges, they discover that kindness and determination can be just as powerful as strength.

Stellar Line-Up For Raworths Harrogate Literature Festival

Raworths Solicitors are delighted to announce the full programme for the Raworths Harrogate Literature Festival 2026 which brings together a vibrant mix of big names and compelling stories – covering everything from gardens and The Beatles to crime fiction and memoir.

Mama Mia - Here I Go Again!!

I’m sure that everyone at some time or another has been to the theatre to see some show or other and left pondering the meaning of life, but with Mamma Mia the audience all must leave with smiles on their faces whilst humming the famous Abba tunes as they travel home.

Marillion Enlighten York In Live Return

Marillion understands the art of emotional slow-burn better than most bands. More than four decades into their career, they remain masters of turning a concert hall into something approaching a shared state of mind – intimate one moment, overwhelming the next.

Under-Represented Writers Explore 'Fears, Joys, Anxieties And Place In The World' As Winners Announced For Creative Future Writers' Awards 2026

The winners of the Creative Future Writers' Awards, the UK's only national prize for under-represented writers, were announced this week, with £25,000 in cash and development prizes shared among fifteen winning entries spanning fiction, poetry and creative non-fiction.

Think Outside The Canvas: Octopus Energy Challenges Young Artists To Reinvent A Greener Future

Budding artists across the UK are being invited to put their creativity to work and imagine a greener future, with the chance to win cash, internships and the opportunity to see their work displayed across the UK.

Hugh Bonneville To Headline Fundraising Evening For Ripon Theatre Festival

Downton Abbey and Paddington star to appear at Holy Trinity in November, with all profits supporting the volunteer-led festival Hugh Bonneville is coming to Ripon for a fundraising evening in support of Ripon Theatre Festival, appearing at Holy Trinity on Saturday 21 November at 7pm for a conversation spanning his career on screen and in theatre.

…And All That: Bayeux Tapestry The Epic Poem By Martin Kiszko

The Bayeux Tapestry, a seventy-metre long embroidery, which tells the story of the French invasion of Britain and the Battle of Hastings in 1066, is a masterpiece. It has also come to the UK for the first time in nearly one thousand years, to be displayed in the British Museum, from September ’26 to July ’27, and tickets to see it are selling fast.

Live Review: Jane McDonald, AO Arena, Manchester

Very few people could have anticipated quite how much acclaim Jane McDonald would experience in the wake of 1998’s BBC series The Cruise. Yet, more than a quarter of a century later, the show’s standout star remains as popular as ever.

Albums: Airbourne- Airbourne

Airbourne has never been a band particularly interested in subtlety. Seven years after Boneshaker, the Australian hard-rockers return with their self-titled sixth album – and they have absolutely no intention of reinventing the wheel.

Team Dresch: “Our Queerness Is A Dreamland Full Of Feral, Playful Joy”

In 2026, good news feels increasingly precious, so Team Dresch’s return is worth celebrating. Thirty years after their last full-length, the legendary queercore punks are back with Furthermore, out via Jealous Butcher Records on 18 September.

Opera North Announces Two Key Leadership Appointments

Opera North has announced two significant appointments as it continues to ensure opera remains a vital part of the cultural offering in Leeds and further afield. Garry Walker will step down as Music Director at the end of his current term in August 2028 to be succeeded by Patrick Lange.

Classical Music: Notes From The Living Room

There are worse places to sit with a new recording than a terrace above Cascais, the Atlantic gleaming below, a lighthouse standing sentinel over the fishing boats and the marina traffic beneath it. I had gone there for the view. It was the music, in the end, that did the travelling — from Kingston to Port of Spain, Tokyo to Skopje, Paris to small-town America, all before the lighthouse had finished its next sweep.

Classical Music: Beethoven For Three Series Symphony No. 3 ‘Eroica'

There is real rhythmic pulse and energy here, and a textural detail in Ax's piano playing that is a constant pleasure — every inner line audible, every line singing, with a beauty in the phrasing that never tips into preciousness. The Leonore Overture in particular sounds astonishingly orchestral in this reduced scoring; the changes of tempo are superbly judged, the observation feels authentic rather than merely careful, and the playing throughout is slick and fabulous in its precision.

Enescu: String Octet, Piano Quintet Reference

There are recordings that arrive with the changing season and feel exactly right for it, and Chandos's new account of Enescu's Octet for Strings, released this week and played by the Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective, is one of them. I went in expecting a curiosity. I came out delighted.

Classical Music: Heartstrings

There is a particular pleasure in hearing pieces you already know intimately played as though for the first time, and that is exactly what violinist Sonia Lee and Grammy-nominated pianist Benjamin Loeb achieve on Heartstrings, a programme of favourites and encores that most collectors will already own in one guise or another, scattered across a dozen different discs, but rarely gathered together as satisfyingly as this.

Classical Albums: Quartetto Gelato Flight

Quartetto Gelato Flight Rodeo and Juliet Suite - A. Copland, P. Tchaikovsky, S. Prokofiev, N. Rota, arr Charles Cozens; Summer (Four Seasons) - A. Vivaldi. arr. M. Pulkki; Brahms' Polka - J. Brahms, arr. C. Maier; Intermezzo in A - J. Brahms, arr. Eun-Chul Oh Passacaglia - Handel 'Halvorsen; Song Of the Birds - P. Casals, arr. M.

One More Time In Ibiza

As the Mediterranean sun shines down from a cloudless azure blue sky when walking out of Ibiza airport there is something else that catches the eye: the huge advertising hoardings. These, however, are not directing you to the nearest burger restaurant or shopping mall but to a more thriving prospect that has become part of the summer landscape on this Balearic island – the Superstar DJ.

Kynren Lands Hat Trick Of International Excellence Awards Nominations

Bishop Auckland attraction goes head-to-head with some of Europe’s leading theme parks after landmark first season for The Storied Lands Kynren has secured three nominations in one of the attractions industry's leading awards, just weeks after opening the gates to its new live-action show park in Bishop Auckland.

£2m Theatre Breakthrough Fund Fires Up New Era For Black, Asian And Ethnically Diverse Theatre Makers Across The North

Nine awards will fund a dozen new productions, eight commissions and 200 performances, reshaping the region's theatre landscape for years to come.

The Sun Has Set On This Lloyd Webber Classic

I never got to see Glenn Close as Norman Desmond in Sunset Boulevard – my loss I fear – however, I did see her amazing understudy Ria Jones, leaving me with a huge sense of excitement and anticipation almost nine years on, for last night’s reincarnation of the Lloyd Webber classic: how disappointed I was.

Clark Datchler: Soul, Second Chances And Shattered Dreams

There are some interviews where you spend the first few minutes establishing a connection. Then there are the ones where, despite the years that have passed, you simply pick up where you left off. My history with Clark Datchler goes back to the Johnny Hates Jazz comeback campaign.

The Car Man: Roaring With Sexuality, Lust, And Vengeance

Pre warnings of adult scenes of a sexual nature, depictions of violence and brief frontal male nudity left me in doubt that Matthew Bourne’s The Car Man is designed to provoke. Sparks fly from the outset - and not just from the welding in the mid-west greasy garage-diner, where mechanics with rippling muscles delight in bullying their sensitive co-worker, Angelo.

Ian Mcmillan Reinvents Mozart's The Marriage of FigaroFor Modern Britain

What happens when Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro meets 1970s Britain, Yorkshire poetry and Indian classical music? Mashallah! It's Mozart – but not as you've heard it before. Bradford Opera Festival is bringing the vibe of a ‘70s Bollywood comedy to Mozart's madcap farce, with a very Yorkshire twist.

The Trial Of Romeo Oscar - Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough

There is a surprisingly strong vein of science fiction running through Sir Alan Ayckbourn’s extraordinary body of work, a strand easily overlooked amid his better-known domestic comedies. His interest in speculative futuristic drama dates back to Standing Room Only in 1961 and includes 1998’s much-praised Comic Potential.

Tonight The Music Seems So Loud - The Meaning Of George Michael By Samantha Sanghera

George Michael’s life has always seemed almost too big to fit between the covers of a book. From global pop stardom with Wham! to becoming one of the most distinctive and accomplished solo artists of his generation, his story is one of extraordinary success, personal struggle, reinvention and, ultimately, tragedy.

Albums: Smithfield Country With Heart

The long-awaited debut album from the Nashville duo finally brings together the eight tracks from 2024’s Country With Heart (Part One) with its newly completed Part Two, creating a fuller picture of Trey Smith and Jennifer Fielder’s musical partnership. Having recently returned from a UK tour that included appearances at Long Road and the British Country Music Festival, alongside a sold-out London headline show at St Pancras Old Church, it is increasingly obvious just how much affection there is for this pair.

Mcdiarmid's Lear: A King Undone, A Man Revealed

King Lear, probably the greatest of all the Shakespearean tragedies, is a play about power, family relationships, suffering and betrayal, but tonight, above all else, it became a deeply human story. Ian McDiarmid takes the title role and completely makes it his own, skilfully depicting Lear’s journey from a proud and powerful king and father to a compassionate, vulnerable and frail old man.

Thirst By John Robins

My friend asked me if I had any books on sobriety. Having never had a drink in her life, she wanted to understand her new partner's five-year recovery. Being the go-to for matters of addiction, abuse, and homelessness (I'm quite the library), I furnished her with a few, assuming that the reason I'd hung on to them was they were the best of the crop. Time passed.

Excitement, Trepidation And Art

Eighteen-year-old Bo sent me a selection of exam paintings. I think you will agree she has a successful future ahead if she decides to pursue art as a career. 6-year-old Elias is a very outdoor adventurous boy but enjoyed an afternoon in my studio trying out new painting techniques to produce this exciting landscape.

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