In Wellington, Circa Theatre is presenting it’s first ever audio-described performance – at it’s matinee on Wednesday 5^th October 2pm. In a new initiative that has been welcomed by the Association of Blind Citizens of New Zealand and the Royal New Zealand Foundation of the Blind, and is supported by Arts Access Aotearoa and the Wellington City Council, Circa will have 100 headsets available to enable blind and vision impaired people to listen to a commentary by audio-describer Sarah Adams that provides live details of aspects of the production usually missed by the vision-impaired – such as stage settings, lighting effects, costumes and the movements and gestures of the actors. The audio-description facility is completely personal to the people wearing headsets, and doesn’t interfere with the enjoyment of the remainder of the audience, and the performance is a normal public performance. However, vision-impaired audience members will also be able to participate in a touch-tour of the set before the performance starts. This will commence at 1.15pm.

 

And in exciting news for Roger Hall himself, Four Flat Whites in Italy makes its Australian debut with a six-week season at the Ensemble Theatre in Sydney. The production opened on 16^th September with bookings already more than 90% for the season, and over 10,000 tickets in pre-sales. A spectacularly successful premiere!

 

Wellington audiences have only a few more days to see this wonderful show. Four Flat Whites in Italy closes on Friday 7^th October. Performances are Tuesday to Friday at 6.30pm and Saturday 8pm, with a matinee at 2pm on Wednesday 5^th October. Bookings can be made at Circa Theatre, Phone 801 7992 or www.circa.co.nz. Audience members who require a headset for the audio-described matinee, need to advise the theatre at the time of booking.