During covid, Grayson Perry helped us cope with lockdowns by launching an art club … now he’s preparing to ask Reading Are You Good?
The artist known from his ceramic vases and tapestries is taking a new show on tour next year, with The Hexagon one of the stopping off points.
Suitable for adults only, the show explores humanity. But don’t expect this to be an evening of doom and gloom, or all seriousness … the artist is planning lots of fun.
Grayson Perry says: “Are You Good? is a question that I think is fundamental to our humanity.
“In this show I will be helping you, the audience, find out if you really are thoroughly good or maybe quite evil, but in a fun way.”
He continued: “I always start out with the assumption that people are born good and then life happens.
“So, let’s pull back the curtain and see where your morals truly lie.
“Are you as virtuous as you think?”
Grayson says there will be lots of audience participation.
“(With) a few silly songs we’ll have an entertaining evening and come out with our core values completely in tatters. Is it more important to be good or to be right?
“It’s time to update what is a virtue and what is a sin.
“No biggie.”
The show is almost a year away: it takes place at The Hexagon in Queens Walk from 7.30pm on Monday, November 10, 2025.
Tickets go on sale from 10am on Friday, November 22, while Reading Arts members can enjoy priority booking from 10am on Thursday, November 21.
Seats cost £33.50, £38.50, £46.50, or £56.50.
They can be reserved by calling the Reading Arts box office on 0118 960 6060, or by logging on to https://whatsonreading.com/graysonperry
As well as working in ceramics, Grayson Perry creates prints, drawings, embroidery, film and performance art. He won the Turner Prize in 2003, and has featured in solo exhibitions in Japan and the United States, the latter being at The Andy Warhol Museum.
Some of his work is held in permanent collections of The Tate, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the British Council and The Arts Council.
In addition to his art, he is well known for his female alter ego, Claire. She is described as “a fortysomething woman living in a Barratt home, the kind of woman who eats ready meals and can just about sew on a button”.
Perry designs many of the outfits he wears when being Claire, although students attending Central Saint Martins Art College in London are regularly charged with the task of designing clothes for her.
In 2020, he launched Grayson’s Art Club on Channel 4.
Filmed in his home studio, it was an opportunity for people to share some of the works they had created while living under lockdown conditions, with some pieces created by Lower Earley-based artist Emma Major.
The piece show on screen was called A View From The Window, and was based on what she could see despite having sight loss.
Gray praised her work for having “the ultimate honesty”.
The exchange can be seen on twitter
How do you become a Reading Arts member?
Reading Arts memberships are for arts lovers, and the price includes exclusive events, discounts on selected tickets, and priority booking.
For shows that have a booking fee, this is included in the membership.
And when at The hexagon and South Street, members can enjoy a 10% discount in bars and cafes.
There are two tiers: Silver and Gold, with different incentives available.
Full details are available on the whatsonreading.com website: https://whatsonreading.com/ramembership
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