6 September 2007 - 16 September, 2007
Cinzia Hardy and the Literary & Philosophical Society, in collaboration with Northern Stage, presentThe Novocastrian Philosophers' Club
The Novocastrian Philosophers’ Club announces its intention to embark on an extraordinary theatrical journey of exploration around one of Newcastle’s most historic buildings. Shrouded in myth and notoriety for at least two hundred years, the Novocastrian Philosophers invite you to enter their extraordinary world. This is your chance to probe and pry into the hidden corners and secret places of The Literary and Philosophical Society and the Mining Institute. Maybe you'll experience the windowless reading room with it's strange unearthly smell of slowly decaying books, stumble across the mysteriously heated walls of the basement or feasting on books in the most unusual of ways? The Literary and Philosophical Society is the place where the light-bulb was first demonstrated to a wonder filled public, and a place where great philosophers and thinkers argue over everything from the power of mechanics to the science of music. For many it is the place where they rest on the steps to take the air after their drunken reveries before crashing home in a taxi. For the Novocastrian Philosophers’ Club the Literary and Philosophical Library and The Mining Institute is a world where books come to life, paintings seem to speak and explorers re-emerge from forgotten centuries and lost places to fall in love.Each performance is restricted to only 15 people, and as the evening unfolds you become part of the history, your presence recorded and perhaps discovered by future adventurers. http://www.litandphil.org.uk/Assisted by a grant from the Northern Rock Foundation, the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, the Sir James Knott Foundation and Newcastle City Council, sponsored by Sintons Solicitors.