Join us for a special screening and discussion of We Were Here: The Black Renaissance Uncovered (2024), the latest documentary by award-winning US-based Italian-Ghanaian filmmaker and activist Fred Kuwornu. 

Exhibited at the Central Pavillion of the Venice Biennale, the film challenges traditional narratives by uncovering the hidden histories of Black Africans in Renaissance Europe. It reveals how their lives, labour, and cultural contributions were systematically erased from canonical accounts. Blending archival research with powerful storytelling, Kuwornu offers what he calls a “historical remix,” challenging assumptions about Europe’s past and its enduring legacies of race and exclusion.

Following the screening, Fred Kuwornu will join Durham academics in conversation to explore the intersections of history, identity, and creativity, and to reflect on the challenges of recovering suppressed narratives. The event provides a rare opportunity to engage with a filmmaker whose work bridges scholarship and activism, while contributing to ongoing debates on decolonisation, equality, and belonging within and beyond the university.

This event is free to attend.

This event takes place at the Sir Thomas Allen Assembly Rooms Theatre, 40 N Bailey, Durham, DH1 3ET.

The event will begin at 6pm and run until approximately 8pm.

Hot off an award-winning Edinburgh Fringe run, the Durham Revue’s 24/25 troupe have crash landed back in Durham to perform their desert island sketch show for one night only!

'The Durham Revue 24/25 will return to the Assembly Rooms to perform their Edinburgh Fringe show ‘Sketch Marks the Spot’ for the FINAL time! Recently dubbed winners of best sketch show of the Fringe by the Derek Awards, the Durham Revue are back on home turf after sell out runs in London, Durham and Edinburgh this summer. The last hurrah for the 24/25 troupe and final chance to catch their show, this hour of sketch comedy action is not one to miss!

The Durham Revue are marooned on a desert island and there’s only one way to escape - 60 minutes of raucous sketch comedy! Will the troupe swim their way to warmer waters, or will they stay stranded? The group that brought you Nish Kumar, Ed Gamble, Liz Kingsman, Stevie Martin, Ambika Mod and many more are back with 100% new material. Join the award-winning Durham Revue, for an hour of hilarious, cutting-edge sketches.

“It’s a phenomenal show by a ridiculously talented bunch” (EdFringeReview.com)

£10 Standard

£9 Concession

£8 Durham Student Theatre Members

This event takes place at the Sir Thomas Allen Assembly Rooms Theatre, 40 N Bailey, Durham, DH1 3ET.

The performance will begin at 8.30pm and last for 70 minutes without interval. Doors will open 30 minutes before the start of the show.

The Freshers Showcase returns for 2025! Join TDTC as we showcase the newest and brightest talent that this year's students have to offer, in a night of dazzling musical theatre performances!

Returning for one night only, the Freshers Showcase 2025 by Tone Deaf Theatre Company showcases the newest and brightest talent this year's students have to offer. Don't miss out on this incredible opportunity to see the future of Durham Student Theatre take to the Sir Thomas Allen Assembly Rooms Stage.

£10 Standard

£9 Concession

£7 Durham Student Theatre Members

This event takes place at the Sir Thomas Allen Assembly Rooms Theatre, 40 North Bailey, Durham, DH1 3ET.

The event will begin at 7.30pm and last for 95 minutes with a short interval. Doors will open 30 minutes before the show begins.

Gothic classic set to the stage, taking a delve into the scariest monster of all for the Halloween season - oneself.

Infatuated by his own beauty captured in a portrait, Dorian Gray exchanges his soul for eternal youth and beauty. However, as he follows his friend Lord Henry Wooton in a hedonistic descent into his own desires, his sins begin to be reflected in the once handsome artwork.

Including previously censored scenes from Wilde's original and best known version, brushed over elements of much loved characters are illuminated under moonlight, and the horror that is Dorian Gray will come to life on the Sir Thomas Allen Assembly Rooms stage.

£10 Standard

£9 Concession
£7 Durham Student Theatre Members

This production will take place in the Sir Thomas Allen Assembly Rooms Theatre, 40 North Bailey, Durham, DH1 3ET.

The production will begin at 7.30pm and run for approximately 2 hours with a short interval. Further information on timings will be clarified closer to the time.

Please note that the performance on Friday 31 October will begin at 6.30pm.

Doors will open 30 minutes before the performance is due to begin.

Blithe Spirit is Durham Student Theatre's 2025 Freshers Play, a witty farce where novelist Charles Condomine’s séance summons his mischievous first wife’s ghost, unleashing chaos as his current wife joins the haunting. Noël Coward’s classic sparkles with sharp humour and supernatural twists.

Noël Coward’s Blithe Spirit is a riotous comedy of manners and mischief. Novelist Charles Condomine invites the eccentric medium Madame Arcati to conduct a séance, hoping for inspiration for his next book. Instead, the ritual conjures up Elvira, his clever and mischievous first wife, who refuses to leave.

As Elvira’s ghost meddles with Charles’ second marriage, Ruth, his current wife, is accidentally killed and soon joins the spirited fray. With two temperamental wives haunting him into eternity, Charles finds himself trapped in a supernatural comedy of errors. This timeless farce combines Coward’s wit, sharp characterisation, and deliciously absurd situations.

£10 Standard

£9 Concession

£7 Durham Student Theatre Members

This event takes place at the Sir Thomas Allen Assembly Rooms Theatre, 40 N Bailey, Durham, DH1 3ET.

This performance begins at 7.30pm and lasts until 10pm with a short interval.

Terry Pratchett’s infamous city of Ankh-Morpork is under threat from a 60-foot fire-breathing dragon, summoned by a secret society.

Defending Ankh-Morpork against this threat is the entire underpaid, undervalued City Night Watch – a drunken and world-weary Captain, a cowardly and overweight Sergeant, a small opportunistic Corporal of dubious parentage… and their newest recruit, Lance Constable Carrot, who is upright, literal, and keen. Aiding them in their fight for truth, justice and the Ankh-Morporkian way are a small swamp dragon and the Librarian of Unseen University (who just happens to be an orangutan).

£10 Standard

£9 Concession

£7 Durham Student Theatre Members

This production will take place in the Sir Thomas Allen Assembly Rooms Theatre, 40 North Bailey, Durham, DH1 3ET.

The production will run for up to three hours with an interval. Further information on timings will be clarified closer to the time.

Doors will open 30 minutes before the performance is due to begin.

Returning to London after wrongful imprisonment, a barber hell-bent on revenge sets out to enact his own justice with a clean-cut shave.

DULOG presents the legendary tale of ‘Sweeney Todd’, a grippingly gothic Sondheim musical that’ll tip you to the edge of your seat. Upon returning to London fifteen years after his wrongful exile, the reinvented Sweeney Todd takes up his old barber shop above Mrs Lovett’s pie shop. Faced with revelations of his past, the two work together to add a deadly secret ingredient to her pies.

This amateur production is presented by arrangement with Music Theatre International. All authorised performance materials are also supplied by MTI www.mtishows.co.uk.

Content Warnings: Sexual violence, murder, cannibalism.

£10 Standard

£9 Concession

£8 Durham Student Theatre Members

This even takes place at the Sir Thomas Allen Assembly Rooms Theatre, 40 North Bailey, Durham, DH1 3ET.

This event will begin at 7.30pm and last approximately 165 minutes. Doors will open 30 minutes before the start of the performance.

Join Durham University Choral Society for their inaugural performance of the season, bringing the reverence of Vaughan Williams' "Dona Nobis Pacem" and the radiance of Poulenc's "Gloria" to the stage of Newcastle Cathedral alongside a 60-piece orchestra.

'Durham University Choral Society, described as possessing "a warm and finely balanced" sound (The Guardian, 2024), join forces with the players of Durham University's leading Orchestras to bring a vibrant programme of choral and symphonic music to Newcastle Cathedral.

Conducted by Tim Burke (Chorus Director for Royal Northern Sinfonia Chorus and Musical Director of Tête à Tête Opera), our evening of music begins with the rousing "Gloria" by Francis Poulenc, a radiant work by the French 20th century composer that spreads joyous praise with a modern twist.  Our second half takes the audience on an extended journey influenced by the First World War from Vaughan Williams' perspective, with a choral-symphonic work entitled "Dona Nobis Pacem" (give us peace).  With introspective slower movements and the haunting fanfares of "Beat! Beat! Drums" Williams brings these tragic memories to life and depicts the light of peace emerging through the darkness.

With an evening of joyous, emotionally resonant music in the beautiful surroundings of Newcastle Cathedral, this event is not one to miss.

£17 Standard

£14 Concession

£12 Durham University Students and Staff

£10 Durham Student Music Members

This concert takes place at Newcastle Cathedral, St. Nicholas Sq, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 1PF.

The concert will begin at 7.45pm and last until approximately 9.15pm. Doors will open 45 minutes before the start time.

Join Durham University Orchestral Society's Chamber Orchestra for the society's first concert of the year bringing a vibrant programme of Poulenc, Mendelssohn and Mozart to Durham's historic St Oswald's Church.

Join conductor Zac Smith and the Durham University Orchestral Society Chamber Orchestra for an evening of vibrant music spanning three centuries of European tradition. From Mozart’s dazzling Magic Flute Overture to Mendelssohn’s enchanting Midsummer Night’s Dream - including the iconic Wedding March - this programme celebrates some of the most beloved music ever written for the stage. Finalist Madeleine Jablonowska takes centre stage in Mozart’s radiant Clarinet Concerto, and the concert culminates with Poulenc’s witty Sinfonietta, brimming with sparkling neoclassical brilliance.

£14 Standard

£10 Concession

£8 Durham Student Music Members

This event takes place at St Oswald's Church, Church St, Durham DH1 3DQ.

The event will begin at 7.30pm and run for 90 minutes with a short interval. Doors will open 30 minutes before the concert begins.

A Trivial Comedy for Serious People, Wilde’s most beloved work follows a cast of ridiculous characters as they navigate love and well-meant deceit in Victorian society.

Jack Worthing, hoping to fulfil his dreams of marriage to the poised Gwendolen Fairfax, adopts the identity of his imaginary younger brother named Ernest. Algernon Montcrieff, intrigued by Jack’s whimsical ward Cecily, assumes the same identity, hoping to charm her. Chaos ensues when both women reveal they have their hearts set on marrying someone with the name “Ernest”, and to their dismay, neither man is being particularly earnest.

The Importance of Being Earnest’ is hilarious and engaging, offering a satirical snapshot of upper-class Victorian society.  Wilde’s most generationally beloved play, this razor-sharp comedy of manners is studied and celebrated for its secret identities, heightened characters, and legendary lines.

£10 Standard

£9 Concession

£7 Durham Student Theatre Members

This production will take place in the Sir Thomas Allen Assembly Rooms Theatre, 40 North Bailey, Durham, DH1 3ET.

The performance will begin at 7.30pm and run for approximately two and a half hours with a short interval.

Doors will open 30 minutes before the performance is due to begin.

A farm’s dream of freedom unravels into tyranny in Orwell’s timeless allegory of power, corruption, and control.

The Collingwood Woodplayers proudly present George Orwell’s Animal Farm, a gripping theatrical adaptation of one of literature’s most powerful allegories. When the animals of Manor Farm rise up against their human master, they dream of freedom, equality, and a better life. But as their vision takes shape, cracks soon appear, and the dream descends into something far darker. Full of passion, tension, and biting satire, this production explores how revolutions can be corrupted from within. Animal Farm remains as urgent and relevant today as ever—a timeless story of power, control, and the human condition.

£8 Standard

£7 Concession

£6.50 Durham Student Theatre Members

This event takes place at the Collingwood Arts Centre, Collingwood College, South Road, DH1 3LT.

The event will begin at 7.30pm (2.30pm matinee) and lasts approximately 2 hours. Doors will open 30 minutes before the start of the performance.

Join the Orchestral Society’s Symphony Orchestra for their first concert of the year, featuring Elgar’s Enigma Variations alongside works by Ruth Gipps, Mussorgsky, and Gershwin.

Durham University Orchestral Society’s Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Michael Kohn, opens one of its most ambitious years yet at Elvet Methodist Church with Mussorgsky’s Night on Bald Mountain, depicting a night of pagan festival with fire and spirits. The programme continues with former Durham University alumna Ruth Gipps’ Knight in Armour and Gershwin’s vibrant Cuban Overture. The evening will conclude with one of British composer Edward Elgar’s most famous works, the Enigma Variations, with each variation portraying one of Elgar’s closest friends.

£14 Standard

£12 Concession

£10 Durham Student Music Members

This event will take place at Elvet Methodist Church, 8 Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HL.

The concert begins at 7.30pm and will last approximately 75 minutes with a short interval.

The timeless classic parable of mass hysteria draws a disturbing parallel between the awful high strangeness of 1692 Salem and our own paranoid society.

When a group of girls are caught dancing in the woods, they begin accusing others in the town of witchcraft to avoid punishment. When these accusations spiral out of control, paranoia abounds.

Everyone must choose between integrity and their own survival.

£10 Standard

£9 Concession

£7 Durham Student Theatre Members

This production will take place in the Sir Thomas Allen Assembly Rooms Theatre, 40 North Bailey, Durham, DH1 3ET.

The production will run for up to three hours with an interval. Further information on timings will be clarified closer to the time.

Doors will open 30 minutes before the performance is due to begin.

Colleges from every corner of Durham unite in support of Anxious Minds to explore the theme, WE COULD BE HEROES.

From quiet acts of courage to epic failures, this showcase asks: what does it mean to save—or try to save—someone? What does it mean to save yourself?

The showcase celebrates college theatre and creates an accessible opportunity for performers and crew members to work in the Sir Thomas Allen Assembly Rooms Theatre.

£10 Standard

£9 Concession

£7 Durham Student Theatre Members

This production will take place in the Sir Thomas Allen Assembly Rooms Theatre, 40 North Bailey, Durham, DH1 3ET.

The production will run for up to three hours with an interval. Further information on timings will be clarified closer to the time.

Doors will open 30 minutes before the performance is due to begin.

Join Durham University Chamber Choir in an evening which explores the expectation and preparation for light and celebrates its glory and power in an array of exciting and reflective choral music, sung by the University's most celebrated choral ensemble.

Durham University Chamber Choir presents a programme which explores the expectation and preparation for light and celebrates its glory and power, entitled "O Radiant Dawn".  Spotlighting James MacMillan's dynamic and rousing Strathclyde Motets, the evening's music weaves these motets together in a sequence which stretches right from the beginnings of light and hope to its powerful arrival, with works of Richard Allain, Joanna Marsh and Owain Park complimenting MacMillan's music throughout this artistic journey.  With music of some of the most celebrated 21st century composers, and a focus on new British choral music, this concert promises to be an exciting and unforgettable experience for all.

£10 Standard

£7 Concession

£5 Durham Student Music Members

This event is taking place at St Godric's Church, Castle Chare, Durham, DH1 4RA.

This event will begin at 7.30pm and last for approximately 75 minutes with a short interval. Doors will open 30 minutes before the performance begins.

Join the Palatinate Ensemble for their first concert of the year - a journey through the 20th century featuring works by Gustav Holst, Jean Absil, and more!

Durham University Palatinate Orchestra’s Palatinate Ensemble warmly invites you to their season-opening concert, ‘Voices of the New Era’, for an evening of vibrant and inspiring music making. Led by conductor Timothy Tsang, the 20-piece chamber orchestra will explore the sound world of the 20th century, performing ‘Petite Suite’ by Belgian composer Jean Absil and ‘St Paul’s Suite’ by English composer Gustav Holst. The concert will also feature performances by smaller ensembles.

£10 Standard

£8 Concession

£6 Durham Student Music Members

This event takes place at St Oswald's Church, Church St, Durham, DH1 3DQ.

This event will begin at 7.30pm and last for approximately 75 minutes. Doors will open 30 minutes before the concert begins.

Rewind will see an unsuspecting person transported across the eras, meeting all kinds of characters on their journey back to their own time period - this production features lots of well-loved musical theatre songs wound together into a brand new jukebox musical showcase.

Guided by a charismatic performer who becomes unstuck in time during an audition for Back to the Future: The Musical, each number transports us to a different era with showstopping numbers from the likes of Back to the Future: The Musical, Hercules , Prince of, Six, Hamilton and Les Miserables. Blending together a multitude of different styles. With its mix of genres and creative charm, the show offers something for every generation of theatre lovers.

£10 Standard

£9 Concession

£7 Durham Student Theatre Members

This production will take place in the Sir Thomas Allen Assembly Rooms Theatre, 40 North Bailey, Durham, DH1 3ET.

The production will run for up to 90 minutes with an interval. Further information on timings will be clarified closer to the time.

Doors will open 30 minutes before the performance is due to begin.

A powerful historical drama and literary biopic that  follows the sisters’ lives from their childhood through to their ultimate deaths as they navigate personal struggles and creative ambition amidst the oppressive patriarchal limitations of the 19th century.

Set in their isolated home on the Yorkshire moors, the play begins with the return of their brother Branwell, dismissed from his job and spiralling into addiction. As the sisters are left to care for their father and keep the household together through grief and hardship, they turn to writing as an escape, the result of which would become the infamous novels that came to define them and the lines between fiction and reality begin to blur as their characters begin to come to life and haunt their creators.

£10 Standard

£9 Concession

£7 Durham Student Theatre Members

This production will take place in the Sir Thomas Allen Assembly Rooms Theatre, 40 North Bailey, Durham, DH1 3ET.

The performance will begin at 7.30pm and run for approximately two and a half hours with a short interval.

Doors will open 30 minutes before the performance is due to begin.

Two best friends, lyricist Hunter and composer Jeff, try to write a hit musical for the New York Musical Theatre Festival. The problem is that they have just three weeks.

Three weeks away from the deadline for a Musical Theatre festival, struggling writer friends Hunter and Jeff scramble to write a play in time. This one-act musical tells their story in a hilariously self-referential musical telling the story of "a musical about two guys writing a musical about two guys writing a musical".

£9 Standard

£7.50 Concession

£6.50 Durham Student Theatre Members

This event is taking place at The Dowrick Suite, The Dowrick Suite, Trevelyan College, DH1 3LN.

The event will begin at 7.30pm, (or 2.30pm on the 13th) and run for 90 minutes with a short interval.

Durham University Palatinate Orchestra’s Symphony Orchestra presents an evening of brilliant rhapsodies and legends, including Liszt’s ‘Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2’, Sibelius’s ‘Lemminkäinen Suite’ and music by Rossini and Glazunov.

The Palatinate Orchestra will open the concert with Rossini’s famed ‘Barber of Seville Overture’, bursting with sparkling wit and charm, before Glazunov’s richly evocative ‘Ballade for Orchestra’. Liszt’s ‘Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2’, in its fiery orchestral guise, forms the thrilling centrepiece, full of drama and orchestral fireworks.

The evening will culminate with Sibelius’s so-called ‘Symphony No. 0’, the ‘Lemminkäinen Suite’, featuring the haunting ‘Swan of Tuonela’, and a sweeping heroic finale. Conducted by Anthony Sutch, this promises to be a night of passion, orchestral marvel and symphonic storytelling you won’t want to miss!

£12 Standard

£10 Concession

£7 Durham Student Music Members

This concert takes place at Elvet Methodist Church, 8 Old Elvet, Durham, DH1 3HL.

The concert will begin at 7.30pm and last approximately 2 hours with a short interval. Doors will open 30 minutes before the concert begins.

In a dramatic retelling of this great Romantic novel, young and unsuspecting governess Jane Eyre must fight to secure her freedom and identity in a world that condemns her for it.

Jane Eyre arrives in 1846 to take up the post of governess to Rochester's ward, Adele, at Thornfield Hall. Jane and Rochester fall in love but their happiness is jeopardized by the discovery of the terrible secret from Rochester's past. The action, contained in a single setting with one small inset scene, captures all the tension and drama that fans and newcomers alike could want from this great love story.

£10 Standard

£9 Concession

£7 Durham Student Theatre Members

This production will take place in the Sir Thomas Allen Assembly Rooms Theatre, 40 North Bailey, Durham, DH1 3ET.

The performance will begin at 7.30pm and run for approximately two and a half hours with a short interval.

Doors will open 30 minutes before the performance is due to begin.

Chekov's gripping tragicomedy presents the human struggle between ambition and human connection; the desire for innovative creative success versus the comfort of tradition and family ties.

Set in a luxurious, but restrictive country manor, The Seagull follows a family of creatives and the tensions that build over each character's desire to be the best. At the centre of the play, Konstantin faces the ultimate struggle as he conflicts his overwhelming passion for writing with his obsessions with Nina, his love for his mother, and his jealousy of Trigorin.

£10 Standard

£9 Concession

£7 Durham Student Theatre Members

This event takes place at the Sir Thomas Allen Assembly Rooms Theatre, 40 N Bailey, Durham, DH1 3ET.

The performance will begin at 7.30pm and last for approximately 150 minutes.

Doors will open 30 minutes before the start of the performance.