And first for what we will hope to be a number of viewpoints from the Island amateur theatre world –Aaron Danvers-Jukes is blind, a member of FIRST ACT Theatre Group and a passionate devotee of all thing’s theatrical. Here is Aaron’s individual take on a recent musical production at Shanklin theatre: -
Dear reader, I think it is safe to say that you are, no doubt, reading this very blog as a fan of theatre yourself. No doubt that it lets you escape to another world, time, and place, for a few hours. Well... imagine that, but what happens when a blind person has entered the mix? That person, being me, Aaron.
Theatre is: spectacle: well, starting with, perhaps, an obvious one. A lot of theatre shows are quite... extravagant in nature. This helps me, as a blind person, in a very big way, in that for shows that use music especially, the sound would most likely go all around you and thus me. So; Whilst I cannot see the sets, I can experience... a sense of space. I would like to give two stories, the first of which, at time of writing happened to me very, very recently. On 17 February, I saw Phantom of the Opera at Shanklin Theatre, presented by Shoreline Productions.
A few things were revealed to me before the show, one of which was that they had to remove two rows from the auditorium to fit a 24-piece orchestra! I already knew I'd be in for an audio treat, but when we got there, I learned we were two rows from the very front, in row D. right near said orchestra.
Whilst for a lot of Act one I did genuinely enjoy the spectacle, I would like to apologize to anyone around me because, during the Phantom of the Opera song, there's a scene where, my dad explained, both Phantom and Christine go into the mirror. "She just disappeared into the mirror with him". I, literally yelled out, "what the……!" Dad said, "I don’t know how".
This then was followed by Music of The Night, and, well I was just sat stock still and then outright cried. I wasn't able to get a tissue out until after the song finished, because as I went for it, there was another verse and orchestral swell and I just wanted to be immersed in the moment. So, I waited until after the song then managed to wipe my eyes just as the organ started.
However, it wasn't until “All I Ask of You” started playing, that some sort of brainwave came over me: I was able to, and thus decided... to take a slightly different approach: I started to, quite literally, look around with my head. Why? To see if I could focus on anything specifically audio wise happening around me and get, perhaps a sense of direction. I spotted the strings on my left, the percussion on my right and then everything else was just around in general. The vocal speaker was sort of in front but slightly to the right. So, this gave me a sense of a sort of space I could work with. Due to the way the microphones work, I couldn't tell what side the characters were on, but that is par for the course for a lot of shows like this, and could still, nevertheless, get that sense of scale.
But, here's something else that might surprise you: there was legit a surprise in store for me, because, I did not notice a harp, until act 2! Trying to check myself, I found that a bit hard as I kind of blurted out to my dad, "wait there's a harp!" and Dad quickly said yes.
Also though, I offer a huge shout-out to the pyrotechnic team. When the chandelier comes down at the end of Act One, you hear this electric-type sound, and there were a few bursts. You could then, smell it! I loved this, that's nothing compared to act 2.
Note: the show's iconic, over 30 years old at this point, so I am now going to go into spoilers. In Act 2, there is a song that takes place in a graveyard, called Wishing. After this scene, however, the Phantom makes his presence known with a trick, trying to make Christine think he's her father, seemingly? Or at least the Angel of Music. However, Raoul then shows up too, and you know that flames will, in this case, literally, fly. At first, I was slightly disappointed as my dad said fire but I couldn't feel anything, but then... there were not one, not two... but three more... bursts of half second long flame which reached my forehead. Not too warm, but warm enough you could feel it. It just made the whole thing even more spectacular.
Aaron will continue to explain his individual take on “Spectacle” in his next blog which we will put up during the next week or so.