AJAYU image credit Elly Wellford
Right then, Villagers – clear a space on your calendars and polish your dancing shoes, because The Tute up in Cambois is back with its most ambitious season yet. Yes, the artist-led community charity that turned a miners’ welfare hall into a cultural powerhouse is serving us another round of the Rude Health Festival – a proper feast of daring, anarchic performance running October through December 2025.
Now, don’t be fooled into thinking this is some quiet parish-council knees-up. Oh no. We’re talking world-class artists tackling themes of health, belonging, grief, womanhood and care – all staged in the most unexpected artistic epicentre in the UK: a repurposed miners’ institute in Southeast Northumberland.
The line-up? Positively bursting at the seams. Names like Liz Aggiss (grand dame of anarchic dance and now making her first return to the stage in years), playwright Alistair McDowall (Pomona, The Glow), dance artist Yuvel Soria, writer Alex Oates, choreographer Lucy Suggate, and prize-winning artist Charlie Ford. Basically, it’s like someone tipped a bucket of glitter over the North East and said, “That’ll do nicely.”
Grace’s Pick-and-Mix Highlights
- AJAYU Transitorio (3 Oct): British-Bolivian dance artist Yuvel Soria invites you into a ritual of dance, percussion, poetry and food – a Day of the Dead celebration that ends with a communal meal. I repeat: performance and pudding, together at last.
- Here Be Dragons (4 Oct): A family musical adventure from Unfolding Theatre. Perfect if you’ve ever wanted to soar across the North East without leaving your seat.
- Cambois Hidden Depths Revisited (12 Oct): A street-theatre spectacular returns, now with live actors, new films, and more local legends than you can shake a stick at.
- Stronger Shores Exhibition (1–2 Nov): Poetry, film and a book made of kelp (yes, kelp). Proof that the coastline is good for the soul.
- Hexed! (15 Nov): Lucy Suggate and Charlie Ford dig into curses, inequalities, and how the weight of the world might finally be lifted.
- all of it (21 Nov): Alistair McDowall’s whirlwind solo play squeezes a whole life into 45 minutes – blink and you’ll miss it.
- Women, Dance & the Sea (28 Nov): A film night celebrating coastlines and creativity. Bring tissues, laughter, and probably a scarf.
- Crone Alone (29 Nov): Liz Aggiss is back – fierce, funny, poetic, and unforgettable. Honestly, I’d pay just to watch her roll her eyes.
- From the Sea (5 Dec): A new work-in-progress by Alex Oates, exploring asylum, care, and coastal life. Raw, powerful, and finished off with a proper panel chat.
And it doesn’t stop there. The Tute are running creative writing workshops, early-years dance, and even suitcase shows for children impacted by parental mental health and substance abuse. Proper grassroots, proper heart.
As Joint Artistic Director Esther Huss puts it: “We’ve carefully considered the needs of our community and curated projects that respond with care and imagination.” And her co-director Alex Oates adds: “Our audience deserve the same calibre of work you’d see in London or Edinburgh – and we’re bringing it here.”
Well, Villagers, I say amen to that. Culture, care, and crones, all delivered straight from Cambois. Stick it in your diaries: Rude Health Festival, October–December 2025.
Because sometimes the boldest theatre doesn’t happen in London – it happens in a miners’ hall by the sea, where the whole community’s invited.
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