Colder than Here - food and drink

There is a lot of eating going on during Colder than Here. In places the script specifies a particular brand so the production crew have had to buy Fry's Chocolate Cream bars and Marks and Spencer's own brand Jaffa Cakes.

In other places stage manager Helen Wright has gone for more homemade options. Plain couscous made with vegetable stock is the impromptu lunch that has the character exclaiming "God, my boyfriend's a good cook". Although actor Ester Walters who plays Harriet did say it tasted better than the cheap Asda curried rice Helen tried first.

Both red and white wine are called for in the script. Budget and the need for sober actors means we don't use the real thing and Helen had fun in her kitchen concocting plausible alternatives. Diluted chamomile tea proved a good match for white wine (visually anyway). Red wine was more difficult and needed blackcurrant tea and red and blue food colouring to get the required depth of colour.

Helen used a glass of real red wine for comparison purposes and don't worry, it didn't go to waste.

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Colder Than Here by Laura Wade 20th - 25th May 2013, 7.45 Progress Theatre

Blithe Spirit by Noël Coward Monday 17th June - Saturday 22nd June 2013, 7.45 Progress Theatre

This year's outdoor Shakespeare Macbeth Thursday 18th to Saturday 27th July 2013 at 7.45pm, Caversham Court Gardens