The constant drizzle, bare-branched trees and waning hours of daylight can make the winter months in Durham a bit of a struggle for us all. Thankfully, the Assembly Rooms is hosting Squashed Mango Theatre Company’s Sita this week to bring a burst of much needed vibrancy and colour to these wintery days. Sita follows the …
December has arrived. The holiday season is upon us. And with it comes a theatre season up and down the country full of pantomime and farce. The Assembly Rooms itself is joining in the fun, as we host Ooook! Productions’ The Magistrate this week. Of course, both of these theatrical forms have a wealth of …
Read more “The Holiday Theatre Season: A Time for Glitter and Absurdity”
This week, the Assembly Rooms hosts DULOG’s always highly anticipated Michaelmas musical, and this year, they have chosen Company by Stephen Sondheim. The second one dips their toe into the world of musical theatre, the name Sondheim becomes inescapable, his repertoire immediately recognisable and fundamental to the genre. Alongside Company, he is responsible for the …
This Wednesday, DST hosted a workshop on 18th Century comedies at the newly refurbished Assembly Rooms Theatre. The three-hour workshop was jointly held by Durham academic Susan Valladares and theatre director Jake Murray, as they took us through the history of Richard Sheridan’s Restoration comedies, before bringing a few of us onstage to test out …
With multiple theatre companies, over 15 productions on every term, and opportunities in acting, producing, directing, tech and design on offer, the scale and success of Durham Student Theatre is an equally exciting and daunting aspect of student life here. Ahead of their opening night this Thursday 7th November, I went to chat with Poppy …
This week, Suffragette Theatre Company’s production of Shelagh Stephenson’s Five Kinds of Silence opens on the Assembly Rooms’ stage. The award-winning, equally urgent and disturbing play explores the repercussions that occur when a family finally breaks the silence on a long history of violence that thus complicates traditional notions of blame and justice. The very …
Read more “Handing over the mic: the stage and social change”
This Saturday 26th October, the result of 14 months of renovations will be revealed as the Assembly Rooms reopens its doors to the public with an Open Day and open-mic style event in the evening. The £2.4 million redevelopment project has been an immense undertaking, impossible without the university’s investment and faith in the Assembly …
As we embark on the final countdown before the newly refurbished Assembly Rooms opens its doors next Saturday, it seems like there is no better time than to look to the future of the theatre as a cultural hub in Durham and, indeed, the North-East of England. Wandering around the city these past few weeks …
