YORKSHIRE’s Badapple Theatre Company kicks off a new tour this month with a comic fairytale, The Carlton Colliers, set in a former pit village.

Music is by singer-songwriter Jez Lowe, who drew on his own background when writing the score.

He was born and raised in Easington Colliery and grew up witnessing the decline of the coal mining industry.

Lowe, who received two nominations at this year’s BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards, was the first in his family to pursue further education and not work in the mining industry.

He has become one of the most covered songwriters on the UK circuit and plays to audiences here as well as in Canada, America, Spain and Holland.

"We are very excited about what his music brings to the production,” said artistic director Kate Bramley.

The Carlton Colliers tells of a hard-up former pit village transformed forever thanks to a touch of magic from a most unexpected quarter – its struggling football team.

A hapless bunch of social outcasts and local league cast-offs are transported magically to a whole other level and we can only watch in wonder as their newfound success spills over to envelop the whole town.

The play stars Robert Angell (BBC’s Waterloo Road), Hull-based Robert Wade (Rose Bruford College) and Fiona Organ (Reform Theatre Company, Theatre Mill, Planet Rabbit Productions, Pocket Panto.)

Tickets cost £9.50, £5 for under-16s, from 01423 339168 or badappletheatre.com. Performances start at 7.30pm.

Dates and venues include: September 18, Helmsley Arts Centre (01439 771700); 19, Potto Village Hall (01642 700609); 26, Galphay Village Hall (01765 650002); October 9, Gilling West Village Hall (01748 823556 or 850302); 10, Moorsholm Memorial Hall (01287 669418); 16, North Stainley Village Hall (01765 635236 or 0797 109 3907); and 17, Lund Village Hall (01377 217352 or 219598.

THE 50th anniversary celebration of Simon and Garfunkel's first number one hit single, The Sound of Silence, brings a musical about the folk and rock singers to Darlington Civic Theatre.

The Simon and Garfunkel Story, on tour since its West End success earlier in the year, is staged at the Civic on Tuesday at the start of the autumn season. It stars Dean Elliott (Buddy Holly in Buddy – The Musical) and a full cast of actor musicians.

The story tells of Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel from humble beginnings as rock and roll duo Tom and Jerry to their success and ultimate dramatic break-up.

Photographs and film footage from the 1960s are projected on to a screen and a live band performs hits including Mrs Robinson, Cecilia, Bridge Over Troubled Water, Homeward Bound, Sound of Silence and many others.

The show ends with a recreation of the 1981 Central Park reformation concert.

September is a musical month, starting on Monday when Darlington Dance Festival bursts on to stage in a celebration of dance in the town presented by dance schools and community groups.

The Gilbert and Sullivan Opera Company brings The Mikado, HMS Pinafore and The Gondoliers (September 15-19), followed by The European Baroque Ensemble performing in costume amid elegant settings in Baroque by Candlelight (September 21), which includes excerpts from Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, Handel’s Water Music and Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D minor.

The Robbie Williams Experience tribute (September 22) spans the singer's 25-year career, with Hollyoaks heart-throb Tom Vaughan performing as Robbie.

Then there's Motown’s Greatest Hits – How Sweet It Is (September 23), Tenors UnLimited (September 28) and the Syd Lawrence Orchestra in The Swinging Big Band (September 30).

For children, a new musical extravaganza based on Channel 5’s popular TV show, Milkshake! Live Party Party hits the stage (September 12).

West End leading man Daniel Taylor stars as the late comedian in The Tommy Cooper Show (September 24). Dinosaur Zoo (September 25/26) promises marvel and interaction with life-like dinosaurs in a hilarious show live from the West End.

RYEDALE Folk Museum has extended Francesca Simon's exhibition Navigations until November 1.

Previewed in these pages a few weeks ago, this is the first debut show outside London for the painter and printmaker who acknowledges the North York Moors as the inspiration for her distinctive abstracts.

The artist has work in national collections and leading UK art galleries though she only finished her MA degree at Central St Martin's in 2010.

“I’m lucky that I’ve got to this stage so quickly," said Ms Simon, 62, who has a home in the area as well as a studio in London.

"But I think being older has advantages, a greater sense of urgency, determination, just knowing that you have to do this now or you never will. Being older has also given me clarity, a perspective on life that helps when I’m working out what to do next.”

Her abstracts reflect the muted and eloquent colours of the moors and its layered topography and archaeology.

Entry to the exhibition is free.