WE begin with a lecture on mountaineering. A woman standing in front of a screen on which are projected pictures of people and mountains as she recounts their remarkable stories.

Then, after 20 minutes or so, a blackout. The screen rises and we might be dreaming. A woman climber dangles on a rope. The floor in front of her is aglow with dozens and dozens of light bulbs. Images flash on and off on the television screen in their midst.

Newcastle's Northern Stage and Manchester's Quarantine have combined to produce a mesmerising, hypnotic theatrical experience about - to quote the press blurb - "love, mountaineering and hallucination".

The title refers to the Geneva Spur that starts at 24,000ft, just before the summit of Everest. We learn this and more from lecturer Jane Arnfield, a passionately enthusiastic speaker, as she tells tales of the people who climb. Many accounts resulted from interviewing people she met during a trip to Everest Base Camp last year.

So far, so normal. In the second part, Arnfield takes an increasingly surreal journey as she puts on her summer dress and high heels to negotiate the blanket of glowing light bulbs. Video, sound, music, movement, light and dark combine to translate mountaineering into a visual and verbal journey.

Arnfield is the only performer - and a marvellously expressive and sympathetic one too - but this is no one woman show. In Richard Gregory's production the unseen contributors make equally important contributions in this stunning piece of theatre.

Runs until Saturday. Tickets 0191-230 5151.

Published: 15/01/2004