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Visually impaired group creates radio station play

Jon Wright
BBC News, Suffolk
Reporting fromIpswich
Jon Wright/BBC Carolyn Allum and Clare Burman both sit at a table with a radio mixing desk and microphone. They are both wearing headphones.Jon Wright/BBC
Visually impaired actors Carolyn Allum and Clare Burman are both local radio fans

An amateur theatre group for people who are visually impaired has a new production set in a fictional local radio station.

Living on Air is the story of Radio Bardwell in Ipswich during the 1970s, written and directed by Emma Bernard, who leads the High Spirits group run by Cohere Arts.

She said: "The cast respond incredibly well to direction because they are such good listeners.

"They are training their ears all the time to negotiate the world and therefore as actors they're really paying attention like mad to what other actors are saying, what the director is saying."

Jon Wright/BBC Two guide dogs sitting on the floor of a theatre stageJon Wright/BBC
Guide dogs attending rehearsals at the Sir John Mills theatre in Ipswich

The group started as part of Unscene Suffolk but was taken over by Cohere Arts two years ago and renamed High Spirits.

Actor Carolyn Allum said: "You've got practical problems getting on and off stage, so the staging is quite simple and always the same.

"In rehearsals if something is slightly moved it can cause utter chaos.

"We have audio recordings to learn scripts, or large print for some people.

"When people are casting us, they might be thinking people with a little bit more vision might be able to support others who have none, so there's lots of sneaky little ways of allowing us to manage."

Jon Wright/BBC Emma Bernard stands in the front of a stage with actors in the background taking a break from rehearsals.Jon Wright/BBC
Emma Bernard says there is a lot humour when directing the group

In the show, Clare Burman plays new DJ Lou Steele, whose appointment disrupts the male-dominated status quo at Radio Bardwell.

"I've always listened to radio," she said. "My family always had it on, particularly at weekends, we weren't allowed to watch television at all.

"I think all of us [in the group] have gained a lot of confidence and even practical things like spatial awareness and physicality.

"We're like a family, we've got similar experiences so we don't need to explain our sight loss too much.

"We come together as a group with shared understanding and I don't think that impact can be underestimated."

Jon Wright/BBC A woman with a spotted dress, holding a guide-stick in one hand a cup in the other, stands talking to two men and a woman sat on chairs. They are at the front of a theatre with raised seating behind them.Jon Wright/BBC
Cast members take a tea break during rehearsals at the Sir John Mills Theatre in Ipswich

Ms Bernard added: "Theatre is about creating empathy and getting people to understand the world from other people's point of view.

"The last thing we want is for people with any kind of disability to be outside of that and to be invisible to the able-bodied world.

"The more we share this world together, the more we are in the same spaces and doing the same things and noticing each other, the better our society."

Living on Air is at the Sir John Mills Theatre, Ipswich, with performances at 14:30 and 19:30 BST on Saturday 12 April and 14:30 on Sunday 13 April.

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