Well, ahoy there me hearties! This year’s pantomime will transport you to a far-off magical island full of swash-buckling escapades, treasure and intrigue.

This sea-faring tale will be jam-packed with all the favourite Richmond panto ingredients plus oodles of laughs, great music and stunning sets. There will also be lashings of Tunnocks teacakes and, of course, the celebrated knitted element.

So, climb aboard for this fun-filled festive adventure and set sail for the voyage of a lifetime!

Fronted by Sting look and sound-a-like Owen James and his band ‘The

Rozzers’, ‘A Tribute to Sting & The Police’ is the most authentic Sting

tribute in Europe. The band have performed all over the world for several

years and now embark on their biggest ever UK tour.

The Police were arguably the biggest band on the planet between 1977

 and 1983, achieving 5 number one hits on both sides of the Atlantic.

 Sting then went on to be one of most acclaimed solo songwriters of his

 generation.

 From Roxanne and Every Breath You Take to Fields of Gold and

 Englishman in New York, all the hits are reproduced with stunning

 authenticity and vocal accuracy. Be sure to catch a show in 2025

The Castle Players brings to the stage its lively adaptation of Neil Hanson’s memoir telling the story of his and his wife Sue’s time running the Tan Hill Inn from 1978 to 1979.

It recalls their dealings with Stan and Neville, the dodgy owners of the inn, along with the demands of the local farming community and passing tourists, and the challenges of the inn’s remote moorland setting.

Follow Neil and Sue as they bring determination and good humour to their roles and move rapidly from naive newcomers to hardy managers of ‘the highest inn in the British Isles’.

“You think you know me. You don’t. So its time to talk.”

1994: a chance meeting on a train between two men, John, a  black British activist and journalist and Marius, a white South African ex-soldier, sets in motion a chain of events that will change their lives for decades to come.

2025: the two men gather to share their story.

Based on an award-winning short monologue that has been seen all over the world, ‘The Moth’ is a thriller that deals with war, race, history, the consequences of our actions and the limits of forgiveness.

Award-winning Elysium Theatre company return to Alnwick Playhouse after their sell-out tours of ‘Othello’ and ‘Reiver’ with a drama that will grip you from the beginning and not let go.

‘This company can do no wrong.” – Reviewer Number 9

RADS present Jean Anouilh's play Antigone - a tragedy inspired by Greek mythology and the play of the same name by Sophocles from the fifth century B.C. The play was first published in 1943, during the period when the Nazis occupied France. The character of Antigone took on the role of the French Resistance and Creon took on the role of the Vichy Government, symbolising the power struggle present in France at the time - the parallels to the French Resistance and the Nazi occupation are clear. In an allegorical way, the play is openly critical about collaboration with the Nazis.

Just as in the myth and original play, the action follows the battle for Thebes in which both of Antigone's brothers have been killed. Creon, now king, has decreed that while Antigone's brother Eteocles should be given the usual respectful burial, Polynices must be left as carrion for scavengers. Antigone chooses to attempt to bury Polynices, and is brought before Creon as a prisoner. Creon attempts to overlook the offence, perhaps because Antigone is engaged to his son Haemon, but Antigone refuses to be denied the responsibility for her actions.

Geordie rising star, Louise Young, is bringing her debut stand-up show on tour! Feral is a show all about class, chaos and coming out. Louise did ask her friends if her life had been feral enough to warrant this title they laughed and assured her it still is.

Sell-out run at the Edinburgh Fringe 2023. Tour support for Alan Carr and Tom Allen. As seen on Comedy Central Live and Channel 4's Original Comedy shorts. As heard On BBC Radio 4’s Fred at the Stand.

Edinburgh Comedy Awards Best Newcomer Show nominee 2023.

NextUp's BIGGEST Award in Comedy nominee 2023.

Leicester Comedy Festival Best Debut Show nominee 2022.

STRICTLY 14+ Likely to be swearing and adult content

★ ★ ★ ★ ★ (The Skinny)

‘She draws the audience in with her confessional tones, inducing gasps and waves of laughter.’  ★ ★ ★ ★  (Ed Fest Mag)

‘A superb debut that leaves nothing in moderation’ ★ ★ ★ ★  (FEST)

‘Her boundless onstage enthusiasm is infectious... One to watch’ (Rolling Stone)

‘An abundance of charisma and classically wry Geordie wit’ (iNews)

Magic is about to take root!

Green Fingers is a BLOOMING marvellous musical comedy for 3-11-year-olds about a boy born with gunky green hands. But why are they green? What secrets do they hold? Perhaps the answers can be found in the mysterious school garden.

Nominated for a ‘BBC Popcorn New Writing Award’, this Dahl-esque treat from Fladam (Flo Poskitt and Adam Sowter) and Ben Taney, is packed full of catchy songs, puppetry and plenty of humour. Exploring themes of difference and understanding (as well as encouraging kids to get out into the garden) Green Fingers teaches us all it’s ok to be a little green!

Northern Lights

We celebrate our first anniversary where we started in 2024, in the Georgian Theatre, Richmond. Northern Lights is also a celebration, of the music of Northern Europe. Is it dour and dark or rich and vibrant? There are some popular favourites, some perhaps less familiar pieces. All of them are sparkling, surprising and vibrant.

Arvo Pärt            Fratres (version for solo violin and strings)

Carl Nielsen       Suite for Strings

Jean Sibelius     Rakastava

Edvard Grieg     2 Nordic Melodies

Tchaikovsky       Serenade for Strings

Following their five-star show, I, Elizabeth, the award-winning Dyad Productions (A Christmas Carol, Lady Susan, A Room of One’s Own, Christmas Gothic, Austen’s Women, Female Gothic) return to the Elizabethan era. To the famous and fabulous Elizabethan explorer, sailor, dandy, and warrior, Sir Walter Raleigh. Elizabeth I’s favourite and James I’s knave.

This is a journey through the astonishing highs and lows of one of Britain’s most famous men from history. But there’s so much you don’t know...

Father, husband, writer, poet, adventurer, philosopher, soldier, tyrant, egotist, lover, traitor, alchemist, visionary, victim.

In a life spanning around 65 years, Sir Walter Raleigh achieved more than others might do in a hundred lifetimes. Over a decade in the tower and still he held power. The Huguenots, America, The Armada and execution. Is that the whole story? The final chapter of Raleigh’s life is perhaps the most daring, strange and utterly heart-breaking.

See the fall from grace taken directly from historical record, marvel at the magnetism of a man who seized every opportunity to create a legacy which spans the centuries and at every wrenching, exalting and personal moment, you will be witnesses.

Written and performed by Andrew Margerison (A Christmas Carol, Frantic Assembly’s Fatherland, Macbeth), and directed by Rebecca Vaughan (A Christmas Carol).

Dorian Gray, young and beautiful, sinks deep into a frivolous lifestyle of selfish abandon, seeming unchanged by corruption and untouched by age. But behind a locked door, beneath a heavy curtain, Dorian’s portrait tells a different story…

An original adaptation by the company of Oscar Wilde’s haunting story of evil, debauchery and scandal, featuring unique puppets created for the show and a powerful original soundtrack.

★★★★★

"..a magnificent show.. gripping from start to finish.."

SGFringe

★★★★

"..visually striking.. a joy to behold."

Fringe Guru

Completing the Trilogy begun with Genius 2.0 and The Work of the Devil, Have We Met? finds Simon standing, like Ulysses in Tennyson’s famous verse, gazing out over the moaning deep and the twinkling rocks and wondering whether to seek a newer world? To smite the sounding furrows? To strive, to seek, and to find? Or whether in fact, to put the kettle on, crack open the Hobnobs and simply yield?

Drawing on Joyce, Proust and the career of Philip Schofield to make sense of his own tangled past and possible future, Evans skilfully weaves comedy, pathos and narrowly averted cancellation into an unforgettable two hours of unique entertainment.

(Ages 15+)

“Chin Music” has two meanings. One is idle talk. The other is a brushback throw in baseball or cricket to intimidate the batter. Both describe Rich Hall’s comedy. Idle but intimidating. Sharp, quick, splenetic, and sublimely improvisational. If you’ve never seen him, you need to hustle down to your local venue and grab a seat because he never disappoints. Ever.

On Boxing Day 2015, the small Yorkshire town of Hebden Bridge experienced the worst floods in century. But, as the town submerged a community emerged, working together to rebuild their sodden town.

Honest and touching with a dash of Northern humour, The Flood is a love letter to a town that refused to give in to the volatility of nature.

Performed by a team of multi-rolling actor musicians, representing the diverse, yet passionate, members of Hebden Bridge’s community, interweaving dozens of personal stories taken from every corner of the town.

The Bluejays present an electrifying and authentic tribute to the era when music changed the world forever.Between 1955 and 1959, artists such as Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry, The Everly Brothers, Eddie Cochran and Little Richard not only transformed the musical landscape but also the way we continue to look at the world today.

The Bluejays take you on a historical journey via breathtaking renditions of the biggest hits of the era (Rock Around the Clock, That's All Right, That'll Be the Day, Tutti Frutti, Summertime Blues, Johnny B. Goode, Wake up Little Susie, La Bamba, A Teenager in Love and many more) and reveal how the Rock 'n' Roll movement, rather than being “a communicable disease”, brought about a dream of equality and freedom that we still chase to this day.

“A wonderful band!” – Brian May, Queen

A thrilling sequel to The 39 Steps, Hannay Stands Fast sees our dashing hero, Richard Hannay, back in the fray on a mission to thwart a new and deadly threat to his beloved England. Engaged on this top-secret case by MI5, Hannay makes his way down to Cornwall to infiltrate a secretive organisation and learn their dastardly plans. Can he save the day to keep the nation safe for another day? Hannay Stands Fast, like its predecessor, is taken on by four actors playing dozens of characters – 53 to be precise! - set in various locations created through quick and innovative uses of trunks, crates, suitcases, ladders, you name it! A rip-roaring comedy for the whole family to enjoy, this is another of John Buchan’s classic Hannay stories, re-told for the stage through laughs, daring-do and utter chaos!

"A tale as old as time"

Richmond Operatic Society invites you to “Be Our Guest” as we transport you into the enchanted world of Broadway’s classic, Disney’s Beauty and the Beast

Melo, the strange, one legged musician, sits alone by the sea, content in his world and playing the most beautiful music. But who comes here? A golden carriage bearing a Princess so beautiful that she wears a golden mask to hide her blinding beauty. And she pushes him in the mud!

What kind of a world is this, where one who hides her beauty behaves so badly to the one with beauty at his fingertips? It is the ‘Land of Rumours’ of course – where the first idea or impression spreads like a wildfire of whispers, distorting the truth and spreading discontent.

A theatrical performance using acting, puppets, shadows and music for everyone from 5 years old to 105.

Four broken A.I. entities  are trying to make sense of the world but no longer have the correct information. These are The Diviners. In their fragmented state they explore a nether world, between the lines of stories and through unheard harmonics of music. Is this where the truth really lies?

When it comes to scattering their mother’s ashes, three siblings are hit with a bombshell revelation that turns their world upside down

This remarkable play is based on the very simple premise that ‘it’s not what you say, it’s the way that you say it’.

The first act is a full-blown, larger than life comedy. Then, after the interval, the characters swap round and it’s repeated as a serious drama. The difference between the two Acts is astonishing.

The Budapest Café Orchestra have won legions of fans through their magical and infectious performances. Evoking vivid images of Tzigane fiddle maestros, Budapest café life and gypsy campfires - plus a few surprises along the way - hugely entertaining, immense skill and profound musicianship. A show by the BCO is good enough to make you want to book that holiday down the Danube!

Tickets £18 (Includes £1 restoration levy)

Snake Davis and Gareth Moulton team up for an evening of gorgeous mellow music infused with pop, rock, jazz and soul.

Snake Davis is one of the most in-demand rock jazz and soul sax players in the world, widely known for his solos on tracks such as Lisa Stansfield’s Change, M-People’s Search for the Hero and Moving on Up and Take That’s A Million Love Songs.  He has played and recorded with artists including James Brown, Tina Turner, Paul McCartney, The Eurythmics and Amy Winehouse.

Manchester born singer-songwriter-guitarist Gareth Moulton is Snake’s long-time friend and collaborator in the Classic Sax Solos project and Heather Small Band. Gareth also sings and plays for Cutting Crew and Wang Chung and has recorded and toured with Go West, Nik Kershaw, Jim Diamond, Paul Young, Chaka Khan and more.

The award-winning Dyad Productions (Lady Susan, That Knave, Raleigh, Christmas Gothic, I, Elizabeth, Female Gothic, A Christmas Carol and Austen’s Women) return with a twenty-first century take on Virginia Woolf’s blisteringly brilliant pre-TED talk.

Take a wry, amusing, and incisive trip through the history of literature, feminism, and gender. Meet Charlotte Brontë, Jane Austen, Aphra Behn, and Shakespeare’s sister – Judith! Introducing a different way to look at our creativity, it even comments on what life will be like in the 2020s! Come and be amused, challenged and changed.

Rebecca Vaughan performs Woolf’s 1928 exploration of the impact of poverty and sexual inequality on intellectual freedom and creativity.

It began as a sudden strange fancy… Polly Perks had to become a boy in a hurry. Cutting off her hair and wearing trousers was easy. Learning to fart and belch in public and walk like an ape took more time…

 And now she’s enlisted in the army, and is searching for her lost brother. But there’s a war on and whatever anyone says, their side’s coming off worse. Polly and her fellow recruits are suddenly in the thick of it, without any training, and the enemy is hunting them.

All they have on their side is the most artful sergeant in the army, a vampire with a lust for coffee and a readiness to fight dirty. And as they take the war to the heart of the enemy, they have to use all the resources of… the Monstrous Regiment.

Adapted from the Discworld novel by Pratchett’s long-time collaborator Stephen Briggs, RADS invite you to ride along on the tide of his outlandish invention…