Inspired by the iconic Stephen King novel and its 1976 film adaptation, CARRIE: THE MUSICAL tells the tale of awkward teenager Carrie White navigating the difficulties of high school and her relationship with her religiously fanatic mother. When Carrie is humiliated at prom, she unleashes her telekinetic powers in vengeance that will throw her life into chaos.

£10 Standard

£9 Concession

£8 Performing Arts Members

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

The performances begin at 7.30pm and last for 2 hours with an interval. Doors open 30 minutes before the performance begins.

Durham Drama Festival is back for 2026 with a week-long celebration of the best new plays and musicals from across the University scene.

In the Sir Thomas Allen Assembly Rooms Theatre, we are welcoming three new productions:

19 Hour Dog Fight

'19 Hour Dog Fight' covers one day: open to close at an all day, all night pool and snooker bar, bartended by Felicity, and containing four regulars; Jerome, Silas, Harry, and Liam. The story revolves around Harry and Liam's psycho-sexual relationship, and works into themes of masculinity, mortality, purpose, and ego as they explore themselves and each other, leading to confrontations with Jerome and Silas (the older regulars), manic-depressive breakdowns, love, frenzy and tragedy as the sun rises.

The Dangers of Being Earnest

The Ainsely Theatre company is an amateur university theatre company, whose two directors - Frankie and Karly, have elected to put on the importance of being Earnest. Unfortunately, with miscommunications, feuds and a general lack of organization, their production goes from amateur to awful.

To Capture the Wildlife  - MUSICAL  

A boy grieving the loss of his mother meets an unusual girl each week in a graveyard. Navigating the pains of life and death, they find comfort in one another, but can their strange, transient friendship survive this tumultuous time?

£10 Standard

£9 Concession

£8 Performing Arts Members

This show is taking place at the Sir Thomas Allen Assembly Rooms Theatre, 40 N Bailey, Durham, DH1 3ET.

The performances will last approximately 3 hours total (approx 50 minutes per play, with an interval after each performance).

Durham Drama Festival is back for 2026 with a week-long celebration of the best new plays and musicals from across the University scene.

In the Collingwood Arts Centre, we are welcoming three new productions:

Infested

Set in WW1 November 1916, the wife is at home in England when during the Battle of the Somme the husband gets sent home because of an arm lesion and with extreme shell shock. The wife starts to question whether the person who has come home is really her husband that she loves or whether it's a mimic (due to shell shock and the mental effects of the war) that's infesting her home with malicious disease which manifests in the form of a deformed rat.

Part of Me

Jamie is a teenager – young, free, and on top of the world. Surrounded by his family and friends, things should be carefree and easy, but not everything is as it seems. Teenage life is confusing and we never know the full story of what goes on inside someone’s head. ‘Part of Me’ is a play about the teenage experience, mental health, growth, and most importantly, recovery.

Poetry Club  

When Martin’s wife passes away, he’s left at a loose end that he intends to tie up by starting a poetry discussion group. Playing out over the first meeting, 'Poetry Club' (working title) brings together a group of unusual people who readily make assumptions about one another.

You’ve met them all before, and you might even have been one of them. How do our first impressions of people guide the way in which we interact with them? What causes us to change our minds?

£10 Standard

£9 Concession

£8 Performing Arts Members

This show is taking place at the Collingwood Arts Centre, Collingwood College Durham

The performances will last approximately 3 hours total (approx 50 minutes per play, with an interval after each performance).

Durham Drama Festival is back for 2026 with a week-long celebration of the best new plays and musicals from across the University scene.

In the Mount Oswald Hub, we are welcoming three new productions:

Oranges and Lemons  

“Do you believe in ghosts?”

“No, but I believe in being haunted.”

A group of people in their mid-20s return to their hometown after their old headmistress has passed away. As the play unfolds, we learn of their personal histories, the threads that sew these particular few together. Things that never were or could have been, times you could never go back to.

Mythweaver  

Desperate to regain the affections of her distant ex-lover Atthis, the poetess Sappho makes a late-night bid for help to the goddess Aphrodite. However, Aphrodite foresees a new love, the wealthy heiress Eirana, entering Sappho’s life, putting her at a crossroads between regret and infatuation. Supported by her mother Kleis and with an ever antagonistic relationship with her goddess guide, Sappho sets on a journey of love, loss, and poetry.

The Hope That Kills You  

Ollie Mackintosh is many things: Arsenal’s trailblazing winger, iconic England goal-scorer and the north-east's golden boy.

Ollie Mackintosh is also gay—But nobody knows that. At least nobody knew that until a photo of Ollie kissing his boyfriend is leaked online. With control wrenched from his grasp, his agent breathing down his neck and his boyfriend away on tour, Ollie is left contending with what his life and his career could look like in the face of such all-encompassing change.

£10 Standard

£9 Concession

£8 Performing Arts Members

This show is taking place at the Mount Oswald Hub, The Drive, Durham.

The performances will last approximately 3 hours total (approx 50 minutes per play, with an interval after each performance).

'I am fine, thank you.' - Documentary Screening and Post-Screening Q&A (moderated by Professor Geetanjali Gangoli)

This documentary originated from the ‘We Are Hongkongers’ research project, funded by the British Academy/Wolfson Fellowship. Eleven Hongkongers, having moved to the UK since December 2019, participated in sharing their experiences and feelings in multiple filmed visits. The documentary features selected stories from these participants.

This documentary presents stories of Hongkonger migrants in the UK, each navigating their own path and defining what it means to live ‘right’ in a new land.

After parting from Hong Kong for some years and settling in a country where the language, culture and climate are vastly different from home, how would Hongkongers remember their home islands? What are the fragments of memory that they still carry?

This documentary originated from the ‘We Are Hongkongers’ research project, funded by the British Academy/Wolfson Fellowship. Eleven Hongkongers, having moved to the UK since December 2019, participated in sharing their experiences and feelings in multiple filmed visits. The documentary features selected stories from these participants.

Content warnings:  Police brutality. Strong language.

This screening is free to enter. Please book your free ticket to ensure your seat.

The screening will last 85 minutes. The doors will open 30 minutes before the show begins.

DOE is proud to present Will Todd's musical reimagining of the classic story 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland', an opera for new and old fans alike.

11-year-old Alice is jolted out of her mundane daydreams during the school holidays when she encounters a talking rabbit who insists that she follow him to the mysterious Wonderland. In this fantastical place, Alice meets a host of peculiar characters who foster a sense of wonder and curiosity. However, she soon learns that all is not well in Wonderland; a mysterious and very cross Queen of Hearts seems distressingly eager to chop off everyone’s heads.  

£12.50 Standard

£9 Concession

£7 Performing Arts Members

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

The performances begin at 7pm or 2pm and run for approximately 90 minutes with interval. Doors open 30 minutes before the performance begins.

The Durham University Orchestral Society Chamber Orchestra arrive at Durham Town Hall to present a programme of narrative intensity, serene lyricism and symphonic brilliance, including Beethoven's iconic 7th Symphony, Copland's Appalachian Spring ballet, as well as Emilie Mayer's overture to the iconic Faust legend.

The Orchestral Societies Chamber Orchestras programme opens with Emilie Mayer's Overture to Faust, a boldly dramatic overture that plunges into the supernatural energy and emotional tension of the Faust legend. The concert continues with one of Copland's famous ballets, Appalachian Spring. Including the famous Lord of the Dance, this American staple paints a portrait of tenderness and lyricism, reflecting new beginnings. The concert culminates with Beethoven's iconic Seventh Symphony, a symphony of unstoppable rhythm and jubilant energy, often described as Beethoven’s ‘apotheosis of the dance," closing the programme in triumphant spirit.  Each piece explores transformation - Mayer’s overture through dramatic turmoil, Copland through pastoral rebirth, and Beethoven through sheer rhythmic propulsion.

£14 Standard

£12 Concession

£10 Performing Arts Members

This performance takes place at Durham Town Hall, Market Place, Durham DH1 3NJ.

The performance begins at 7.30pm and lasts for approximately 90 minutes. Door opens 30 minutes before the perfomance begins.

Julius Caesar, one of Shakespeare's most famous tragedies, navigates conspiracy, tyranny and morality - and the death and violence that follows it.

DUCT presents Shakespeare's infamous tragedy, 'Julius Caesar.' After Caesar's victorious return from war, his growing ambition begins to invoke fear and suspicion from those around him. Conspiracy grows, and as the shadows grow longer, alliances, betrayals and death flicker in the moonlight.

Presented against the backdrop of 1970's outlaw culture, 'Julius Caesar' questions morality, honour and the cost of violence - raising an important question: Who can you really trust?

£10 Standard

£9 Concession

£8 Performing Arts Members

This performance is taking place at the Sir Thomas Allen Assembly Rooms Theate, 40 N Bailey, DH1 3ET.

This performance will begin at 7.30pm (2.30pm also on Saturday), and last for approximately 135 mins with interval. Doors open 30 minutes before the show begins.

Join the Palatinate Ensemble for their Epiphany term concert, as they perform the iconic Beethoven Symphony No.5!

Durham University Palatinate Orchestra’s Palatinate Ensemble is proud to present their second concert of the year, ‘Beethoven Symphony No. 5’, for what promises to be an electrifying evening of music making.

The concert will open with a series of chamber performances in the first half, featuring string quartets, a string octet, a wind quintet, and a brass trio. The second half showcases Beethoven’s much-loved Fifth Symphony, performed by the 25-piece chamber ensemble under the direction of Timothy Tsang, in the brilliant chamber reduction by David Walter.

£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.

Join Durham University Choral Society for a packed evening with over 100 voices showcasing the repertoire for our upcoming international tour, bringing together works of Dove, Holst and Reger in Elvet Methodist Church.

Durham University Choral Society returns to the stage for a preview of its international tour repertoire in the resonant acoustics of Elvet Methodist Church here in Durham.

Conducted by Associate Conductor Louis Allen, "Nachtwache" (night watch) is inspired by the symbol of a guard nurse at a hospital, and explores themes of nightfall, darkness and sleep in an eclectic programme reaching from Holst's "Evening Watch" to the mystical and decorative "Seek Him that Maketh the Seven Stars" by Jonathan Dove.

If you're looking for an evening of atmospheric choral music sung by a gloriously blended ensemble of over 100 singers, there's no better place to be than this in March.

£12 Standard

£10 Concession

£8 Performing Arts Members

This performance is taking place at Elvet Methodist Church, 8 Old Elvet, Durham, DH1 3HL.

The performance begins at 7.30pm and lasts for approximately an hour and a half. Doors open 30 minutes before the show starts.