Arts: Theatre for Everyone
The National Theatre aims to serve everyone it can – and that includes providing access behind the scenes, according to Jennifer Reynolds.
Each year the National Theatre on London’s South Bank welcomes more than 750,000 visitors through its doors. The building – home to the Olivier, Lyttelton and Cottesloe theatres – presents an eclectic mix of new plays and classics from around the world, with seven or eight productions in repertory at any one time.
“The National Theatre is for everyone,” insists NT Director Nicholas Hytner. “It’s our responsibility to make theatre available to the widest possible public, and we actively seek an audience that will demand an ever more challenging and diverse repertoire from us.”
Last year, the NT delivered 100 assisted performances at the South Bank and on tour, including audio-described and captioned performances. “During the past few years, we’ve seen a real increase in the number of people who join us for assisted performances,” Ros Hayes, Head of Access at the NT, explains. “We also offer free touch tours ahead of audio-described performances, and these are proving to be particularly popular. Members of the cast are on hand to meet our blind and visually-impaired visitors and can talk them through the various props and costumes. It’s always special for visitors to stand on one of our stages, particularly the Olivier – an auditorium that seats 1,100 people. It’s a friendly and informal affair, and it goes without saying that guide dogs are welcome too!”
Jenny Revel, who is blind, has been bringing groups of blind and partially-sighted visitors to the NT for the past five years: “On average, I bring around 16 people to the theatre two or three times a year,” she tells us. “The last time we were here was back in May when we came to see Never So Good starring Jeremy Irons as Harold Macmillan. Current show War Horse appealed because it sounded a bit different – I liked the idea of life-sized horse puppets and live music.”
Jenny and her group joined the touch tour ahead of a matinee performance: “Touch tours add everything to the experience” she adds. “When I touched the life-sized horse puppets, I could feel that were built like a wooden structured-shell. I could then imagine how two or three people would fit inside it to create the animal’s mannerisms.”
Vanessa Tutty came to the NT with her mum and two sisters. “It was the second time I’ve been to see War Horse, and it just gets better and better,” she says. “It was fantastic to meet the cast. Kit Harington, who plays Albert, was talking to me in his character’s West Country accent and the puppeteers did all the horse noises for us – it sounded so realistic.”
The touch tour group also had first-hand experience of the Olivier’s giant rotating stage – the famous drum revolve, used to lift huge pieces of scenery onto and off the stage via two large elevators which can be raised or lowered eight metres below stage level. This particular tour group are the first ever visitors to take a ride on the revolve. “It was so exciting to be on the stage as it took us up and down,” Vanessa says. “We weren’t at all scared: everyone was laughing and it was great fun.”
Audio description is a live commentary, given by trained describers which is interspersed with the actors’ stage dialogue. It is relayed via a discreet headset linked to the theatre’s infra-red audio system. Commentaries usually begin 15 minutes before curtain up with a short “programme notes” description setting the scene and capturing the atmosphere, costumes, characters and action before the performance begins.
The audio-describers working on War Horse are Andrew Holland and Louise Fryer. Sat in the technical box at the back of the theatre stalls, Andrew describes Act 1 while Louise does Act 2. “Audio-describing is an extraordinarily creative thing to do,” says Louise, who has worked with the NT for more than 15 years. “It’s up to us to convey the entire visual side of a production. War Horse is an incredibly visual show, so we’ve got a demanding job on our hands. That’s what’s so enjoyable though – we know we have to bring the magic of the horses to life.
“We get a script and DVD of the show in advance, and then come in and do a ‘dry run’, so that we can hear each other’s description,” Louise adds. “It’s important that our two halves balance and make sense when fitted together. It’s also a chance to go back over things we might have missed, or over-described, before delivering it live.” Help comes in the form of Maria Oshodi, who as director of Extant – the UK’s only professional performing arts company of visually impaired people – gives feedback on the audio-describers’ scripts.
“War Horse was one of the best plays I’ve been to at the National,” says satisfied audience-member Jenny Revel. “Going up on the stage to see how the puppets work and meeting the actors made such a difference to our enjoyment of the play, and the live audio-description delivery really is quite an art.”
Head of Access Ros Hayes is pleased with the feedback received from their visitors, telling us: “I’m constantly surprised and utterly impressed by the actors, stage managers, dressers and technical staff who innovate and approach the touch tours with the greatest of professionalism and insight to the production process. The opportunity for all to share with each other is unbeatable, there is a passionate buzz around the place.”
Further information about access at the National Theatre: email
