Artist-led community charity The Tute presents its most ambitious season yet with the return of Rude Health Festival, running from 3 October to 5 December 2025 at Cambois Miners Welfare in Southeast Northumberland.
Staged entirely from a repurposed miners’ welfare institute, Rude Health Festival explores themes of health, belonging, womanhood, grief, and care through dance, theatre, film and visual art.
Following the success of last year’s inaugural edition, the 2025 programme features a vibrant line-up including Liz Aggiss, Alistair McDowall, Yuvel Soria, Alex Oates, Lucy Suggate, and Charlie Ford.
Joint Artistic Director Esther Huss said, “We’ve really carefully considered the needs of our neighbours, to explore the challenges that are affecting their well-being, choices and sense of identity, and we’ve curated a set of projects that respond with care and imagination.”
She added, “It’s incredibly humbling that artists we’ve long admired, like Liz Aggiss and Alistair MacDowall, want to support that vision. There’s a sense that something special is happening here in Cambois.”
Alex Oates, Joint Artistic Director, commented, “We’re proving that tackling public health issues and creating community impact doesn’t mean compromising on artistic ambition. Our audience deserve the same calibre of work you’d see in London or Edinburgh, and we’re bringing it here!”
The festival opens with AJAYU Transitorio (3 October), a multicultural live performance by British-Bolivian dance artist Yuvel Soria, blending Bolivian, Kuchipudi, Afro-Diaspora and contemporary dance with poetry and live percussion.
On 4 October, Here Be Dragons by Unfolding Theatre offers a family-friendly musical adventure written by Lindsay Rodden and directed by Annie Rigby.
Hexed! (15 November) by Lucy Suggate and Charlie Ford explores the feeling of being cursed, drawing inspiration from the Women of the North report and community collaboration.
Women, Dance & the Sea (28 November) is a curated film night featuring works by Jacky Lansley, Rosemary Lee, Liz Aggiss and Esther Huss, reflecting on coastal life and womanhood.
Liz Aggiss returns to the stage with Crone Alone (29 November), a fiercely funny and subversive solo exploring aging, value and performance.
Stronger Shores Exhibition (1–2 November) showcases work developed in partnership with Stronger Shores, including poetry by Linda France and a dance film by Esther Huss.
Alistair McDowall’s all of it (21 November) is a staged reading of a solo play capturing one woman’s life in 45 minutes, followed by a Q&A.
Cambois Hidden Depths Revisited (12 October) celebrates the return of last year’s street theatre event, featuring performances by Christopher Connell and Lucy Elizabeth Davis.
The festival concludes with From the Sea (5 December), a new work-in-progress by Alex Oates, co-created with people with lived experience of asylum, care and coastal life, directed by Amy Golding.
Community projects include Write Now at Bedlington Academy, Be Moved early-years dance sessions, and Twinkle Arti, a touring suitcase show supporting children impacted by parental mental health and substance abuse.
Listings and ticket information can be found here
