Northern Ballet are aiming to make the Lowry audience blush with the titillating reimagining of Anne Lister’s 1820-30 diary entries. Recapturing Anne’s enlightening thoughts, desires and fantasies by streamlining her five-million-word diaries into a time-jumping ballet that spotlights the most explosive moments of her adventurous life.

Your no-nonsense archaeologist is back at the Bridgewater Hall with a live orchestra to recount the classic tale of a religious relic, a pit of snakes and the Nazis’ plan for world domination. If you ever needed an incentive to dust of an antique, the 1981 four-time Academy Award-winning classic, teamed with a live rendition of John Williams’ Grammy Award-winning score, makes Indiana Jones in Concert an irresistibly epic experience. Driven by the brilliant Dr Henry Walton Jon

Waxing on a thick layer of 80s nostalgia, Karate Kid the Musical offers a questionable balance of slow-motion karate and drawn-out pacing.

Spotlighting their 30th anniversary with a reflective, puppet-filled caper, Theatre-Rites’ Return To the Forest is a five-piece fantasy built on collaboration and heritage. The Aviva Studios audience gets to participate in an after-hours visit to a museum of ancient masks, maps and a stolen heart, trapped in place but yearning to break free from their enclosure. As the family-friendly show unearths its five items, director Sue Buckmaster playfully crafts their journey with a