404 Reading Club
Experimental Theatre

London, UK

August 2025 

Director: Kailin Xu
Lighting Design & Technician: Sheron Luo
404 Reading Club is an interdisciplinary experiment in reading, body politics, and feminist horror. Performed through text, projection, sound, light, and movement, it built a ritual-like journey where language was no longer fixed on the page but embodied, unstable, and alive.
Design Concept & Execution
I joined the project at the last minute. After watching rehearsals, my first question was: how do I light these banshees? Using the theatre’s original rig, I shaped the space with unsettling colour matches. The performers’ fluorescent costumes became a key element: sometimes I pushed light to full brightness, so the fabric seemed to “drink in” illumination, other times I left the projection and fluorescent glow to dominate, making the bodies appear lit from within.
Problem-Solving & Collaboration
To enhance the fluorescence, I pre-exposed the costumes to sunlight before the show and programmed sequences with very high intensity. Cutting suddenly to darkness let the audience’s eyes, adjusted to brightness, perceive the costumes as glowing vividly. The balance with projection was delicate, so I treated the rig like a responsive instrument, adjusting colour, timing, and shadow in dialogue with the performers and media artists.
Outcome & Reflection
The performance was described as “a chilling and inventive representation of humanity and the philosophy of the body,” a response that affirmed the atmosphere we built together. For me, it was also a reminder that sometimes constraint working at the last minute, using an existing rig — can spark creativity.
In 404 Reading Club, light became something unstable and spectral, just like the performance itself. It didn’t simply illuminate; it whispered, receded, and occasionally let the costumes and projections take the lead. That balance created a space where the audience didn’t just watch but felt their way through a world that was strange, coded, and alive.
