Read All About It
Yesterday, myself and my boyfriend went to see 'Read All About It' at the Coventry Evening Telegraph building for one of their VIP nights (as he worked setting the place up for the show). It was a final goodbye to the old press work building before it undergoes work to become a boutique hotel. The tour of the building stopped around various different points, all of which held a different story or historic event in the form of a short play, to show how the paper came about and was used. The whole thing was very clever, at the start I did not understand what it was about or how it worked, but by the end, when everyone came together chanting the message of the evening, the building and the telegraph itself, I came to realise the meaning and importance of the Coventry Evening Telegraph; "Never underestimate the power of the collective voice".
The pieces just showed how stories are so important, people would rely on the paper to find out about a birth, a death, from small town gossip to large political events, everything. It also showed how people were all given an equal opportunity in the paper, no matter which race, gender or class they are, it gave them their own voice, which could then create power through the collective voice.
The second half was with the Mercurial Dance group presenting 'Retold'. I have seen them before at the Shop Front Festival and was excited to see what they had in store in relation to the building and people's stories. They devised a piece where they were putting together a paper, and needed stories from people for certain sections of the paper. They asked the audience for their stories (just like journalists of the papers used to do) and devised dance pieces for these stories. Their performance was full of loads of other funny and exciting twists! Their creativity is just extraordinary and they way they engage the audience with every dance is amazing. I really love this group so if you get a chance to see them perform, do!
'Read All About It' and 'Retold' combined were really effective and left me feeling slightly emotional to be seeing this building go. It made me realise it has had an influence on so many people, from the people who worked there (like my dad at one time), to the people who always relied of the Telegraph (and some who still do). The evening is a really enjoyable one and I'd suggest you go if you have the chance to see it before it finishes on Saturday evening. It is full of Coventry's people, actors, actresses, creatives, both young and old celebrating the life of this iconic building and everything it stands for!
Thanks for reading, Katie Xx
