Review: Animal Farm – Progress Theatre
I always enjoy going to Progress Theatre. It is a small theatre, but everyone there wants to be there. They are friendly and engaging and you often end up just having interesting conversations,...
View ArticleReview: Talking Heads – Progress Theatre
Watching a monologue, writes Alan Bennett in the introduction to Talking Heads 1, is more like reading a short story than seeing a play. More effort is demanded of the imagination. So the small,...
View ArticleReview: Killer Joe – Progress Theatre
The small auditorium of Reading’s Progress Theatre was an apt setting for Tracy Letts’ claustrophobic 1993 play – Killer Joe. Letts also wrote the screenplay for the 2011 movie of the same name,...
View ArticleReview: The Weir – Progress Theatre
The Weir was written by Irish playwright McPherson in 1997. It is set in a small, rural Irish pub and is small and intimate in both content and setting. There are only five characters, sitting in the...
View ArticleInterview: Anthony Wernham on The Merry Wives of Windsor
Progress Theatre’s annual Open Air Shakespeare production returns with a staging of The Merry Wives of Windsor at Caversham Court Gardens. We spoke with the show’s director – Anthony Wernham – about...
View ArticleReview: The Merry Wives of Windsor – Progress Theatre
I say this with tedious predictability every year, but Caversham Court Gardens really is the most beguiling setting in which to stage open air works from the Bard as summer reaches its height. The...
View ArticleReview: Two-Way Mirror – Progress Theatre
This double bill of two one-act plays by the great American dramatist Arthur Miller kicks off the autumn/winter season at Reading’s rightly respected Progress Theatre. And the staging takes place in...
View ArticleProgress uses theatre to bring memories back to life
Progress Theatre have relaunched their dementia care home project ‘Hidden Lives: Stories to Remember’ to mark World Alzheimer’s Month this September. The project had a positive impact on the residents...
View ArticleReview: WriteFest – Progress Theatre
For ten years now, Progress Theatre has been using Writefest as an opportunity to showcase local talent, and as currently one of the only platforms for new writing in Reading I would say this year’s...
View ArticleReview: Suddenly Last Summer – Progress Theatre
Suddenly Last Summer, widely considered Tennessee Williams’ starkest and most poetic work, may be a short piece of theatre, but it’s intensely demanding of both cast and audience. Set in a sultry 1930s...
View Article