Hi all, and welcome to another blog post! I know I haven’t been around in a while. But due to the current way the world is right now theatre in genreal has all stop so reviews have also stopped as a result. Hopefully I will be able to get back to writing some more reviews for you all very soon.

It’s All In The Planning!

Once you have given them all the information they need and it is all confirmed then they will send you an email with everything on to refer to should you need to. From my experience it is best to keep this in your inbox on your phone and to hand, as sometimes the indivdal person assisting you might not have been given your seat number or carriage info. In a ideal world they should but it does happen. It is worth noting here, that this DOES NOT London Underground Assistance, if you are going to, travelling through London you will need to seek out Underground staff, sometimes the assistance person who met you off the train will take to someone, but sometimes you might need to do this yourself. Underground staff for me have always been amazing and I can’t fault them in anyway and I have used them for years!

The Actual Travelling

To be honest, for the most part. Travelling normally goes quite well, and everything you booked goes well including train times (although this nation rail we are talking about here) but the odd thing can go wrong. Sometimes, there can be a lack of communication between staff at a certain station, communication between station to station or what type of assistance can be difficult. For example, even though you book the assistance part of your journey weeks in advance, it can be that once you are off the train, no member of staff is there to greet you, or it can be you can be seating there on the train after everyone has gone off and no one has come to help you. I have known people who have been waiting on the platform or on the train for twenty minutes, because nobody has turned up to help them. Believe it or not, this is something that happens a lot. So it could well mean asking for a member of the public to help you. But I am sure many of you are familiar with this, so use your personal judgement when doing this.

If you have seat reservations, then trying to find a seat should be too much of a problem, but trying to find a seat on your own can be challenging. There are ways you can combat this. Depending how confident you are about asking for help, there absolutely nothing wrong in asking someone on the train for help, or asking someone if they will give up their seat. Asking someone to give up there seat is in my experience is the least affective way of finding a seat. Whereas, if you have ask someone for help in finding a seat they will either help you in finding a seat, ask people to give up their seat, or they might even give up thier own depending on if they have gone their good deed for the day or not!

I have personally had to literally sit on the floor in between seating compartments as I haven’t been able to find anywhere to seat. Also a pro tip there, sometimes if you ask a member of staff on the train and say there is no seats available in standard class, and would it be okay to go and sit in first time, sometimes they will let you. Or sometimes if your really lucky Assistance Staff will put in first class themselevs as sometimes believe it or not it is easier for them! I never say no to that, but don’t get too excited as you won’t get any of the first class luxuries (unless you have a really nice mmeber of staff).

Some Other Pro Tips:

Take Lunch With You – I strongly suggest this for two reasons: One, because to be blunt and honest it is a heck of a lot cheaper! But secondly, where you might be seating on the train could be two or maybe three carriges away from the food carrige and you don’t really want to walk all the way down there for just a sandwich and a chocolate bar!

Have your ticket and your Disabled Railcard (if you have one) in the same place- It is a good idea to have your current travelling ticket and your railcard in the same place in your wallet or purse. But if you have one of those travelcard holders then they are great for this. So this is so when someone comes asking for your ticket, you don’t need to fumble and check every pocket. But please don’t leave it on the table once they’ve checked it. I did that once and left it on that train, so when a member of staff asked for it on my next train I didn’t have it! Luckily they were really nice about it and told me not to worry about it.

Make Sure Your Phone Is Charged – Come on! We have all been there, you go to check your seat reversation and you go to your phone and it’s flat! What’s worse is that now you have nothing to listen to, as all of your audiobooks and music are on that phone too! If you have one, bring a portable charge with you. They are no that exsepsive and you can get them pretty much anywhere. If you travel with more than one device say an iPad then you can even get portable charges that will charge both at the same time, but they can be a liitle more pricly but are so worth the money, because as visually Impaired people. We probably use our devices more than the average person.

So there you have it, some advice and what it is like travelling if you are disabled. Please don’t forget to go and check out Emma’s post on her blog which I will link again here. Please do comment below and share your stories. Tweet them to me also using my twitter handle: @MrAlexRamzan and don’t forget to follow me whilst your there and also follow Emma at: @InvincibleWheel! Check her out!!

Until Next Time!
The VI Crtitic

Hi everyone,

So I’m gonna be honest, this year we have a little bit of a problem. I’ve been reviewing at the Mercury Theatre for four years (I think) now and during those years, I have gone and reviewed their Christmas Pantomime each year. So here is the dilemma…I’m running out of good things to say! Mercury Theatre, next year you will have to make the show not very good on purpose, so then it will be easier!

Anyway, onto this years’ Pantomime of ‘Cinderella’! I think we all know the story of ‘Cinderella’ but just for some reason you don’t, I’ll give you a shorter version. So a little grows up with her father, who has to remarry, so he marries Ella’s Step-Mother, not long after the wedding he tragically dies and then from that time on she turns Ella into a slave and makes her do all the chores of the house. Along the way, there are two ugly Step-Sisters, Ella’s good friend Buttons, a Fairy Godmother and of course a handsome Prince. Oh and in this version, a duck!

Photography By Pamela Raith

From the get-go, as usual, it was all set up to be once again one of the highlight shows of the year. I arrived at the Abbey Field, which is currently The Mercury Theatre’s home away from home whilst the remodeling project at their main theatre is being carried out. Once I arrived I was greeted by a lovely staff member how showed me to the information desk. Once the theatre I had arrived, they took me to a place where Blossom would be comfortable. Whilst I watched the show. I then sat down whilst I waited for the doors to open. Now the Abbey Field is a massive almost circus-like tent with acres of space with plenty of seating. I was shown my seat so I sat down. After a sat down for a few minutes, I thought to myself ‘This, I think is a little too far back, and I’m going to struggle to see what’s doing on.’ Now I know The Mercury would have put me closer to the stage if they could have, so I didn’t think much of it. ‘If someone comes and checks on me, then I’ll ask if it’s possible I could move.’ I thought, but I wasn’t going to make a big deal of it. Right on cue, as though they had read my mind, a member of staff came to check on me, I ask politely if there was any possibility I could move a little closer as so then I could have a better view of what was happening. Within seconds I was moved to the front row. I always have to credit the support staff, they truly are amazing and honestly go over a beyond to help you! Outstanding service and support, thank you!   

Photography By Pamela Raith

The stage before the show was surrounded by start lights and lots and lots of glitter! It just would be Panto without the glitter. The safety curtain had a royal blue background, with a white magical starry trail going across it. Once the show had started, I could already tell this was going to be fun, there was a lot of flashing lights, which at a pantomime is expected, so this is something to bear in mind if like me you are light-sensitive. You could tell from start to finish all the cast had an awesome time! For the first half an hour or so, the audience was a little quiet and dead, so there was much for the cast to bounce off of. But as the night went on the crowd warmed up and go into the show.

As always the standard of the show was excellent, the acting from all the cast was truly on point. We even had the return of Anthony Stuart-Hicks and Dale Superville as the two ugly sisters. As usual, they had the audience in the palm of their hands. These two are always first class every year, and it is always a real treat seeing your comedy talents, amazing as always well done both, it wouldn’t be The Mercury Panto without you, it really wouldn’t. There’s not much, I can say about the actual show, that I haven’t said in previous years. You could tell from beginning to end that everyone had massive fun, Anthony played with the audience in little bits throughout the show, and had the audience in stitches. But all the cast were amazing, well done to all!

To sum up then, this year’s pantomime of ‘Cinderella’ is a must-see this Christmas and New Year! It is honestly the best Pantomime in the whole of Essex! You will not be disappointed in the slightest! I am personally heading to see it again in a couple of weeks with my family, and I can’t wait to see it again!

‘Cinderella’ is running at The Mercury Theatre – Abbey Field from the 30th November until 5th January 2020! Get your tickets here now!

Overall rating for Visually Impaired:

You will have an amazing here! There is an Audio Description performance available, but if you can’t seem to get tickets for that then I honestly think you’d be fine without. Most of the jokes and gags are all pretty much said, so you won’t have a problem accessing them. However, if it is a personal preference then go for it. As I mentioned previously if you are light-sensitive then I would remember this when booking seats. I would say for the best view, I recommend seating on rows D or E and will have a good view from there. The rest of the venue is completely lit with lots of lights, and the theatre are more than happy to dog-sit your Guide Dog should you need it, but I would recommend telling them this in advance so they had plenty of notice.

I hope you all have a wonderful and peaceful Christmas, and I hope to see you all in the New Year!

Until Next Time,

The VI Critic!   

Hi everyone, and I’m finally back with another theatre review! The theatre season has finally started back up again. So I’m very excited to see what I get the chance to see this year! But this year it is slightly different…

This year The Mercury Theatre in Colchester is under some renovations, so for the next six months or so, they will be performing under a tent theatre at Abbey Field. This has been a first for me to see a theatre show outside. So I do have somethings to say about that, but first let’s talk about the show ‘Oliver’ adapted for Charles Dickens’s novel by Lionel Bart, as was performed by The Colchester Operatic Society.

I have review one of these shows before a few years ago called ‘Jekyll and Hyde – The Musical’ and I personally went to see last year’s performance of ‘Annie’. On both occasions, the shows have been both of a really good standard, so I was expecting the same here.

I first need to say, that it was very clear from the start that it was very clear that everyone thoroughly enjoyed themselves from start to finish. Oliver played by Archie Ball seemed a tad nervous to begin with but as the show went on he grew more and more in confidence, and having heard this was his first show with The COS and to play such an iconic role for your first show is such an achievement! The acting was excellent and it was obvious he spent a long time learning the lines! Well Done!

Nancy played by Leanne Field was outstanding from the moment she entered the stage, she had the old victorian London accent down to a tee. She even managed to keep it up whilst singing the songs which was to me very impressive! On the topic of her singing, what can I say, it was nothing more than excellent and extraordinary! She really stood out, and to play such a well known and iconic role as Nancy, amazing! Playing Nancy is one of the hardest roles in theatre so Leanne defiantly has done that role justice!

All the cast were excellent! If I sat here and mentioned everyone, me and you would be here all here. They were all just amazing!

On to the show itself, there were times in the show were for me the lights were very bright. So I struggled to see certain parts of the show, but I don’t think they were any major plot points so I don’t think you will miss out on anything, just something to remember if you are light sensitive.

There were some parts for the show where some of the characters were in the heart of London surrounded by various stalls and markets. On a couple of occasions, an actress came out in a wheelchair, playing various roles, from a newspaper saleswoman or just a stand-in as an extra. I thought this was an excellent example of inclusiveness and involvement which for me was lovely to see! More theatre companies and shows should take note of this and do this even more than they do!

Wayne Setford playing Bill Sikes played the role very well. The character of Bill Sikes is known for being the best robber and pick-pocketer in London and therefore is very feared even by Fagan himself. For me, I didn’t get the sense he was as feared as he should have been for an audience perspective. Sure the characters feared him as they should. But for me personally, the fear didn’t really come across to the audience. But like I said he played the role very well and was a good performance. It also would have been nice to see his dog Bullseye, but I can sort of see why they didn’t have him in this version.

Onto the venue itself, like I said at the beginning this is the first time I have watched a full theatre show in an outside tent, so before heading to the show I was interested to see how they would pull it off from a Visually Impaired point of view, and I have to see I was quite impressed! Throughout the tenure, it was very well lit. As you enter the venue you get to walk on a plastic walkway which was nice to see so then you didn’t have to walk on uneven ground which is good for cane users, as I know for personal experience, walking on grass with a cane is not easy! Once you walk into the venue you get to walk on carpet. Some of the areas of the carpeted areas were a little uneven especially walking to our seats, and some of that area some of the carpet was a little high and lose so could be very easy to trip if you have limited vision, so might be something they will change in the future.

As we were walking to our seats, these areas are quite dark, so they put small white fairy lights on the floor and on the ceiling. So was a little easier, again this was a little bright at first, so maybe look straight at them like I did a couple of times! But was a really nice touch as was very well thought out! As the tent was in a field it would be very easy to take your Guide Dog for a toilet should you need to.

When we came to sitting down, we were sitting on the end of a row, so was very easy for us, there was limited legroom, so if you are sitting more into the middle of the row, and you come across who are already sitting down and you try yo get past, you might find it little difficult even if they stand, so if your booking I’d try and get an end seat, it also has the added benefit as during the show some of the cast come out into the audience so then you will get to see some of them up close.

We were sitting in Row D so we were very close to the stage which was excellent as the stage was very close to the front row so I could see everything very clearly which was great, even though I did have a tall person in front of me!

Overall the venue is very good, and I had no major problems if you did have any problems the staff are very helpful and will try to help you as best they can, so if in doubt just ask!

Low Vision Guests – I think you have no problem with the show, I would recommend sitting a couple of rows back from the front as you maybe need to crank your neck in a few places to see what is going out as some of the show are on high platforms.

No Vision Guests – I think Audio Description would be good here, a lot of the story is dialogue and songs so if you can’t seem to get an AD performance I don’t think it will be a huge problem, just maybe a friend with you, just in case there are any bits of the show you struggle with. 

In conclusion then overall it was a great show and a great venue! I would defiantly recommend if you fancy a good night out! It was really fun which some brilliant comical moments and a very well-told story!

‘Oliver’ is running at The Mercury – Abbey Field’ from the 27th of September until the 12th of October 2019. If you fancy tickets you can find them by clicking HERE which will take you to The Mercury Theatre website!

Until Next Time!

The VI Critic!

Rehearsal video/Trailer: