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 Performing Arts 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 Performing Arts 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 Performing Arts 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 Performing Arts 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 Performing Arts 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 Performing Arts 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 Performing Arts 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

£7Performing Arts 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 Performing Arts 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 Performing Arts 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 Performing Arts 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.