If you find theatre too contained and fancy something a bit different then The Quiet Volume is for you. It’s about reading, encapsulating the world of books through words, talking, noise, visuals, touch. It’s about breaking reading down into its barest form and makes you think about an art we learn at an early age and take for granted. It’s about what you are doing now – reading. And it’s all done through a pair of headphones in Oxford Central Library. Intrigued? I was. It’s not an obvious location for a theatrical event, but once you’re stuck in, you realise it’s the perfect venue because you need to be immersed in books. To set the scene, you and your companion sit side-by-side at a desk and, wearing headphones, take cues from words both written and whispered, as you find yourself burrowing an unlikely path through a pile of books. Ant Hampton and Tim Etchells’ hour long programme forces you to think about everything from the act of reading and writing to the magic behind those flat words, the skill in the act itself, the patterns, rhythms and stories involved, the part the reader plays. It also emphasises how distant and removed we are when reading, as if having an out-of-body experience. The texts serve to remind you of the vivid nature of books as we are whipped into extracts from three novels whose story-lines grab you by the neck and drag you straight under, emphasising the immediacy of the words and reminding us how easy it is to lose ourselves in the novels and their characters, proving the joy of reading. The Quiet Volume enthrals you from start to finish and takes you off to another place. Try it.