They Don’t Pay, We Won’t Pay!

March 23, 2023March 23, 2023 / thevicritic / Leave a comment

Hi everyone, and welcome to another review!

This show, that I am going to talk about was on my radar even before I got invited by The Mercury Theatre to go and see this. I am also hoping to go and watch this again soon, so that should give you a smaller insight into what I think of the show but please do read the rest of what I think! As hopefully some of it will be helpful if you wanted to see this yourself. I also need to say as always a huge thank you to The Mercury Theatre for their kind invitation and for giving me the opportunity.

‘They Don’t Pay, We Don’t Pay’ is Produced by Tracey Childs, and directed by Ryan McBryde. Both have bought us amazing shows in the past so I am always hopeful when I see these names in the programme! The show tells to story of local people who have had enough of the ‘Cost Of Living Crisis’ currently happening in the UK and tells the story of local people just paying what they can for the food they take, or not paying at all. The storyline follows the couple Anthea played by Laura Doddington and Jack played by Joseph Alessi as they try to figure out what they doing to do about all the food and energy bills going up, but when Anthea comes home with all this shipping, and she starts telling these web of stories to try and get them out of the current situation that she has landed them in. That night turns into the most action-packed they have ever had!

Photo shows Jack, Lewis and the police sergeant running towards the police tape like its the end of the race.

The show was very current to the time and conveyed well what it can be like for people living below the breadline and just about making ends meet. But at the same time, there are heaps and heaps of comedy throughout the whole show. Sometimes I could tell whether or not something was meant to happen or not, or if something went wrong! All of the sets were bright and colourful, along with the characters’ costumes. This was a massive help, as Anthea wore a pick hoodie/jumper, Jack wore overalls for his work, and Maggie played by Tesni Kujore Anthea’s close friend wore a flowery dress. It was really easy to tell who was who at the right time. Even though all the cast did such an amazing job, I have to shout out Marc Pickering who played several supporting characters, all very similar and this was an amazing use of comedy as the other characters would reference this at times which only added to the hilarious comedy.

This show has to be the most accessible show I have seen so far this year! I mentioned the use of colour and costumes above, but all the comedy was verbal with little sprinkles of physical comedy but they were described by the actors! When going to shows, I have sometimes felt a little left out because of a certain scene, but this is rare. But I have to say, this is the first show in quite some time that not once did I ever feel this! Everything was clear and easy to follow, even though there was one darkness scene it was described to the audience from start to finish! I have to say a big thank you to the writing and production teams! As it was you that make this show accessible, and it is clear to see that you thought about your audiences, including those with Sight Loss!

Photo shows Jack and Lewis holding sacks of rice. with lewis talking to Jack with Jack having a worried look on his face.

I cannot think of higher praise than this. I plan on coming back to watch this show again. I just need to find a date that works!

Talking of Accessible performances, there are available: A Audio Description performance is available with a Touch Tour before the show on Thursday 30th March at 2.30 pm. Prices range from £15 – £30, but also accessible and carer tickets are available.

‘They Don’t Pay, We Don’t Pay’ is at The Mercury Theatre from 17th – 31st March 2023! Tickets can be found on The Mercury Theatre website! Get your tickets whilst you can! You don’t want to miss out on this!

Until Next Time,

The VI Critic

Manjeet Mann’s ‘Run Rebel’

March 3, 2023March 3, 2023 / thevicritic / Leave a comment

Yesterday I was kindly invited by The Mercury Theatre in Colchester to see Run Rebel.

I opted to go to the matinee performance which I felt turned out to be a good decision as the atmosphere seemed more relaxed and informal. There were two schools in the auditorium which was a little distracting for me but in some scenes really added to the emotion of the performance with all of their reactions. This was highly welcomed and I felt was a nice change.

Run Rebel is produced by the same company that also put on the show Noughts & Crosses, which has seen numerous awards since. I was somewhat excited to see this after enjoying their previous show, and I wasn’t disappointed.

shows a picture of the stage before the show, and the view from my seat.

The show tells the story of Amber, a teenager who feels trapped on one side by her family and the expectations of her father and on the other by her love for running and her dream of one day representing her country. There is tension as her father feels she should give up on her dream and follow the traditions of the household but the love of running and the will to follow her dreams is too strong a siren’s call for Amber to resist. Within this show is a strong use of Amber’s mental health and also of her family life, with everyone scared of her father due to domestic violence.

But once Amber learns about the French Revolution in her history lesson, she encourages her family to revolt against her drunken father.

This is very much a welcome change for me, as these are subjects aren’t spoken about enough in todays modern world, especially by teenagers. It was great to see school children at this show, and I really hope they took something from it.

The cast were brilliant, I could really feel the emotions from all of them incredibly well. Jessica Kaur did a fantastic job playing the character of Amber, along with narrating the story to the audience. The chemistry behind all the cast was palpable, especially between Pushpinder Chani who played Amber’s father and Jessica Kaur as Amber. During their scenes together, I truly felt like they were indeed father and daughter. This really made me feel I was watching professionals at work!

On to the accessibility; the main issue was a strong use of harsh or minimal lighting. Most of the performance it was either one or the other, which on occasion made it very difficult to fully see what was happening. At times when Amber was talking to the audience she was lit by a spot light so she was easy to see but there were other scenes where the characters were washed out by the lights, so it was a little difficult to see. Also in a number of scenes especially when Amber was at home with her family, the stage would be very dark so I found it difficult to see what was happening.

As I was in row E this time, if I were to go and see the show again I would pick either row D or ideally C, as they are much closer so I would be able to see much more.

photo shows Amber and other class mates all wearing colourful clothing all standing in a line preparing for a race.

On the plus side however, the use of action scenes was low. Most were just some of the actors running up and down the stage or running on the spot, but with the spoken dialogue filling in the exposition. This is a great addition as then you really aren’t missing out on anything for about ninety percent of the show. The only scene you do miss out on is the more physical/fight scene towards the end as that isn’t really described in detail, but I feel like I can forgive them for that.

As a result, the story flowed really nicely and I was able to understand what was going on really well, and missed very little. My own tiny gripe is that I don’t think microphones were used during this performance? This would have been helpful in certain places, as I found that in some of the scenes I struggled to fully understand what some of the cast were saying. So maybe in future shows this is something that could be added?

There are no access shows unfortunately according the Mercury’s website. I would assume this is due to Run Rebel having a short run at The Mercury. However as this show is going on tour around the UK, hopefully if they have longer runs at other theatres this is something that can be added in the future.

photo shows amber and her dancing laughing, dancing, and bumping hips to some music.

Finally then overall, I feel it really doesn’t matter if you are a blind or visually impaired theatre-goer as I think you are going to get something out of this show, whether you are young or old. As I said, Run Rebel is touring so go grab yourselves a ticket!

I think this is an important production as there is so much merit in the huge amounts of discussion on mental health, as well as the scenes of domestic abuse and violence.

A ‘Content To Consider’ document has been created should you feel that the show may possibly be triggering for you so if you are interested and would like to know more, I will link it for you below.

Visit The Mercury Theatre’s website to find information on tickets and more!

Run Rebel is running at The Mercury Theatre from Thursday 2nd March until Saturday 4th March 2023, but is on tour at the follow dates and venues:

York Theatre Royal: 7th – 11th March

Derby Theatre: 14th – 18th March

Belgrade Theatre Coventry: 21st – 25th March

Alnwick Playhouse: 28th – 31st March

Until Next Time,

The VI Critic

‘Charlie & Stan’ At The Mercury Theatre!

February 8, 2023 / thevicritic / Leave a comment

So here we are with the first theatre review of the year! As always I was kindly invited to this performance of ‘Charlie & Stan’ by The Mercury Theatre in Colchester!

So I will be honest and say that when i got the invite for this performance, I was a little worried when the email said that the story was told using physical comedy and no words, but since seeing the show, I’m not as worried now writing this as certain things have been put in place to help blind and visually impaired people which I will go into a little later on, but first the show itself.

The show tells the story of Charlie Chaplin and Stanley Laurel and their trip towards America. Charlie Chaplin rose to fame in 1888 in which the medium of ‘silent film’ was a the height of is popularity, to which there would be little sound only music, with the odd title card here and there that would appear on screen, describing a scene or telling the audience what the characters were saying. During these films Charlie Chaplin would make audiences laugh with his large array of physical comedy.

Stanley Laurel or Jefferson when he was called by his real name was well known to generations he was part of the ‘Laurel & Hardy’ double act. Even I watched them a little when I was a kid.

The show tells the story of how they both become known and started to get a name for themselves and how they almost worked together. The show was very much entertaining and good and fun night out! With a few elements of audience participation. As I was sat on row D I was able to see the show quite well, due to the amount lights on stage, with one darker scene but it didn’t last very long. The show itself was really fun and enjoyable to watch, the over expression of all the actors especially Nick Haverson and Jerone Marsh-Reid really made the whole performance and the format of silent film come to life!

Coming out of the show, I was a little concerned about writing this review, as at the time, I felt like I would be unable to recommend to show to anyone with a visual disability. However that has since changed! I have since discovered that on the shows webpage of the Mercury website, there is an audio recording that is nine minutes long, and describes the show in great detail! This is something that I can but only applaud! It would be great if all future shows had this feature as it will only add the accessibility of all Mercury Theatre future shows! The audio recording goes into deep detail about the show: how many actors there are, describing each actors costumes, what the characters look like, how tall they are etcetera. This is a very much welcome change to the website. I wish I only had access to it before the performance!

Photo shows a photo of the set before the show. A makeshift boat made of wood planks, with two stories, with the stairs on on the left hand side.

There is also a Audio Description performance for this show, as well as a touch tour, which the audio recording tells you about and the details, I will link it here: if you are using a screen reader is under the heading ‘accessibility’ which is roughly half way down the webpage.

In terms of accessibility this is the best I have seen to date, and I really hope this format continues in the future. In light of all this, I can do nothing but thoroughly recommend this whole heartedly. It’s a really good and fun night out, that will have you in balls of laughter from beginning to end!

‘Stan & Charlie’ is running at The Mercury Theatre in Colchester from 8th – 11th February 2023! Full details you can find by clicking the link here!

Until Next Time!

The VI Critic

Photo shows the adverting poser for Charlie & Stan, with both characters in the sea sitting on a water barrel, with charlie holding a umbrella above thier heads.

Mischief Production’s ‘Good Luck Studio’

October 6, 2022October 13, 2022 / thevicritic / Leave a comment

Hi Everyone,

I recently got the chance to see ‘Good Luck Studio’ by Mischief Productions, behind the comedy shows ‘The Show Goes Wrong’ and ‘Peter Pan Goes Wrong’ on the BBC. I wanted to see one of their shows live, and last night I got the chance so was excited!

Ticket & Venue

I was kindly invited to The Mercury Theatre in Colchester for their press night of this show, and so was gifted the tickets for this show! Tickets range from £15 to £25, it is completely worth the money. A disabled ticket can also include a companion ticket should one be required.

Seating

For this performance, I was offered seats in row D which are always an excellent view for anyone who is visually impaired as you are very close to the stage and was able to see everything going on from start to finish comfortably, with no eye strain whatsoever. So if you can get this row when booking your seats will have no problem here at all.

The Show

As I had seen this company’s production of other shows on tv, I went in with hopes being very high and they did not disappoint! The show had a dark theme, but also lots of laughter and comedy and I had a really good balance of both. You felt like you had a connection with each character and the audience felt for each of them as they were going through their struggles. The show had a real professional feel throughout which is something that I had expected coming from the company’s previous reputation.

I can’t fault any of the cast at all, they really did put everything they had into their own performances and the passion bled from them during the whole show. A truly great performance done by all!

shows princess pineapple in a yellow and orange pineapple dress. talking to a puppeteer holding a frog puppet. — Photo by Pamela Raith

Accessibility

I need to start by saying that there is a content warning for this show including gunshots, a bomb threat and mock acts of terrorism. So that is something you need to bear in mind when considering booking tickets. There were multiple gunshots throughout the show, a few of them were in scenes and some were slightly muffled but it is there. For me personally, I think there were maybe too many gunshots, but at the same time some added to the plot, so I would say use your own judgement on this.

There was a great use of colour and lighting in certain scenes which were really helpful. There weren’t any dark moments which was a nice addition. The only dark moment came at the end of the first act, but that is expected. There were a lot of really bright colours as the mock tv show was a show for children so was easy to see who was who. There is a point where two different characters are wearing the same costume so I had to rely on the actors’ voices but that was only a handful of times.

shows 'Andy' (Adam Byron) wearing a bright green with purple dots dragon body custom, holding a yellow script. — Photo by Pamela Raith

There is an Audio Description performance available, if you have limited to no vision I would strongly encourage you to have the AD headset as there are a few visual jokes and tags throughout the show inducing one whole scene that is entirely visual. So take the option if you can. There is also a ‘touch tour’ available should you want that access too. The Audio Description and Touch Tour performance are on the 15th of October at 2.30 pm.

Overall

In conclusion, I thoroughly recommend this show to adults and older teenagers. A really enjoyable night out, a great laugh with all emotions in one show! I highly recommend it for sure! ‘Good Luck Studio’ is running at The Mercury Theatre from 6th – 16th October 2022. Then running to other theatres in the UK. You can find tickets at The Mercury Theatre by clicking here, or the Good Luck Studio website here!

Until Next Time,

The VI Critic!

a full shot of the whole set with the dragon dancing and jumping also with princess pineapple with bright lights all around them. — Photo by Pamela Raith

Colchester Operatic Society’s ‘Fame!’

September 10, 2022 / thevicritic / Leave a comment

Hi Everyone,

Back again with another review. This time the show was put on by a local drama society in Colchester! If you would like to know more, and maybe even get involved then you can find their website here. Go and check it out!

Ticketing & Venue

So I was kindly given the tickets by The Mercury Theatre in Colchester! They were incredibly helpful! There is a wide range of ticket options available. You can choose either: a disabled person ticket, or a visually impaired ticket, or if you have an assistance dog, there is also an assistance dog ticket. There is a companion ticket option at £1.50 that can be added with any of those tickets.

They are very geared up to helping people with all disabilities, not just blind or visually impaired people! All staff are able to offer sighted guided assistance should you require it! If you also have a Guide Dog then the front-of-house staff, are very accommodating and will happily look after your Guide Dog during the performance. If however, you would like your to be with you during the performance then that is something you can also do easily!

Seating

So in terms of seating, you are able to book any seat within the auditorium that you require. At this particular performance, I was given seats H 21 and H22. For me, this proved to be a little tricky when it came to certain darker scenes as I was unable to fully make out who was who. I was somehow able to do this due to do this as these scenes being in the second half of the show I knew which character was speaking as I had worked out which character was who due to their voice! If I had to recommend a certain row I would recommend row D if you have Low Vision, as this is close enough where you are still able at least I am able to see the performers’ facial expressions. Which is something I like to do, but you might be different. But if you have No Vision then anywhere in the auditorium you will have the same experience.

The Show

Overall, the show was very good, You have to consider that all the actors in the show are not professional. But considering this, some of the cast had amazing singing voices! Sadly I am unable to mention certain cast members by name as on my particular evening the programmes were sadly not delivered in time, and at the time of writing this review, there is no cast list on the Mercury website. But you all really were amazing and you all should be really proud of yourselves!

Throughout the show, there were some technical difficulties with microphones and such so was a little difficult to hear what some of the cast were saying at times, but this was opening night so I think we can forgive them for the odd teething problems!

Accessibility

In terms of accessibility for blind and visually impaired people sadly, it is very limited. Unfortunately, there is no Audio Description which I feel these days is a must and should be at least one per show that comes in. But looking at the website there doesn’t seem to be an Audio Described performance, hopefully, this is something that the Colchester Operatic Society can look to change for future performances, as this is disappointing to see. However, there are two captioned performances available. So check out The Mercury Theatre’s website for more details, click here to find out more!

Overall

This was a really fun show to watch, you called tell that all the company thoroughly enjoyed their time on stage and you could really feel the passion they all had for performing, I think some could really go far if they kept at it! The show is running from 10th – 18th September multiple shows a day so this is definitely a watch if you would like to see some up-and-coming talented and you could say you saw them first!

Until Next Time!

The VI Critic

Why ‘Alt Text’ Is Awesome! – #DescribeThePic

December 3, 2020 / thevicritic / 4 Comments

Hi all,

Today we all take looking at photos on websites and social media is something we take for granted. But for people who are Blind or Low Vision can be really difficult if someone doesn’t take the time to describe that photos.

Screen Readers

But how exactly do Blind or Low Vision people look at these photos? Well people with Low Vision might choose to use Zoom features to be able to look at a photo or read some text, but it’s a little different for people you have no vision at all. People with no vision use something called a ‘Screen Reader’. A ‘Screen Reader’ is a piece of software, that can either be built into a device like all Apple iOS or Mac products, or in some cases android too. This little of software reads all things on the screen to a Blind person, whether that be text messages, the weather, or even ebooks. But it will always read ‘Alt Text’ on websites to describe photos.

Alt Text

‘Alt Text’ is a simple piece of code on a website that allows people to add descriptions to photos which Screen Readers can read if the person has ‘Voice Over’ on, but it embedded into the photos, so it is hidden by sight users to your website (social media alt text will be covered below). Websites like ‘Wordpress’ make it very easy to allow owners of a website to add descriptions to photos. For more information on adding alt text to your wordpress website you can click here!

Here are two examples, the first image doesn’t have Alt Text, but the image underneath does:

Photo shows a photo of me and Guide Dog Blossom sitting in a house garden posing for a photo. Blossom is wear her Guide Dog harness.

Social Media

So adding ‘Alt Text to photos to tweets on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook is so, so easy, and even more important now more and more people are now using social media even more! So below I am going to give you some instructions on how to add Alt Text for each of these websites:

Twitter

So adding Alt Text to your photos along with your tweets is as follows:

Firstly, click or tap on the compose tweet button, type out your tweet, then at the bottom, tap or click on the add photos button.
Once you have selected the image, at the bottom right of the thumbnail of the image, there is an alt text button, once tap or clicked another window will appear where you can typed on the description of the photos.
Once you have typed on the description, then just tap or click then done button, then just tap or click the tweet button.

Instagram

Adding descriptions to your instagram photos goes like this:

Tap on the ‘add photo’ cross at the top right of the app, the dice on the photo.
Once you have added a filter if you chose to, then once the ‘New Post’ window appears click or tap the ‘advanced settings’ option that the very bottom of all the options on the page.
Once there, scroll all the way down the ‘accessibility’ section, under that is the ‘write alt text’ button, tap on that. once there it gives you a huge section for you to be as descriptive as you like! The more descriptive the better!

Facebook

Unfortunately, Facebook does not have a way for you to embed the description into the photo. So the only way around this is to add a photo description underneath your post along with the photo, with the words ‘photo description’ along with the description of the photo.

Adding Alt Text, to photos to some might be an extra thing you have to when you ‘just want to post an image to your friends’. But just taking this little extra step before pressing share. Means that everyone can enjoy your photos including people with vision loss!

I have had the massive honour and privilege, on not doing this post alone! This post has been part of a campaign called #DescribeThePic along with the brilliant Siobhan Meade creator of the YouTube channel ‘Blind Girl Vlogs’ an channel of which you can find here or her twitter here. But also the wonderful Emily Davison who creates fashion and all things Visually Impaired blog posts and videos on her website, YouTube channel, and twitter whom I have follow for a while and it has been a joy to work with!

Thank you Siobhan and Emily for having me! I’ve enjoyed it so much!

I know this is complexly different to what normally post about, but this a topic which is near and dear to me, so I was something that when asked I really wanted to get involved with. So I hope you have got something out of this, and hopefully next time you post an image to social media or website.

If you decided to post a photo in the near future, or decide to make video or blog post also on this same subject, then please do so. I’d would love to hear what you guys think about this! But then you do, please use the hashtag #DescribeThePic on social media, that way people can also see your creations and your opinions too!

Due to world pandemic as many have seen, the theatre industry is none existent! So I am not sure when my next post is going to be, as there will be no Pantomime post this year. But I want to take this time to wish all a Very Merry Christmas & A Happy New Year!!

Until Next Time!

The VI Critic