The stage is bare apart from five microphones on stands at the front and a blurred projection on the far wall. Ibelisse Guardia Ferragutti enters. In silhouette, she is a dramatic sharp-edged shape whispering hello to us. Gradually the sound and light build and a tune begins: melodic piano, gentle singing (music by Gary Shepherd). […]

Four very different looking women, four different styles of black dress, four different types of black shoes, four different dining chairs, and four saws – all the same. From B&Q. Holding eye contact and draped elegantly over their chairs, like classical musicians summoning a muse, the quartet slowly pick up their instruments and begin to […]

Having partied their fifteen minutes at Warhol’s Silver Factory (The Factory, 2010), Earthfall’s latest takes them downtown to that other hub of New York 60s bohemia, the much-storied Chelsea Hotel. The second law of rock’n’roll thermodynamics states that lived history and myth, once mixed, cannot be un-mixed and the piece is preoccupied with strategies for […]

To translate a 1500 page 17th Century tome on the philosophy and physical manifestations of depression and other mental maladies into engaging theatrical form is a quixotic endeavour, even exhibiting signs of madness itself. Theatrical innovators Stan’s Cafe make no concession to the density or erudition of the original. However, their edit cleverly converts Robert […]

For many Reading residents ‘Jacksons’ is a word synonymous with the town centre. Founded in 1875, the retail store is still independently owned and run by the family who established it. Moreover, it is run in accordance with some of the same intentions and approaches that crafted its identity a century and a half ago. […]