Over the last few years, the Festival City Theatres Trust has been building a programme of ‘relaxed performances’ that help to overcome physical barriers to attending the theatres and to foster a new approach in making live performance accessible to all.
The first relaxed performance was of The Snowman at the Festival Theatre(FTE) in December 2012, that was the first of its kind in Scotland. Since then, Trust is able to present its fullest ever programme of performances that embrace the relaxed approach, making performances accessible to children from Edinburgh’s special schools, and inclusive performances for audiences of all ages with mild to complex support needs.
The Trust’s theatres present more access performances for audiences with sensory impairments throughout the year than any other theatre in Scotland including Captioned, British Sign Language Interpreted and Audio-Described performances and arrange Touch Tours where visually-impaired patrons can explore the set and feel props and costumes, as well as providing braille, large-print and audio versions of our brochure.
Following the inclusive performance of Scottish Ballet’s The Nutcracker that was performed earlier today, the Trust is delighted to present two shows in their programme, The Tin Soldier from Birds of Paradise and The Attic from children’s theatre company Starcatchers that are designed to be accessible for audiences of all needs at every public performance, with The Attic including an additional Dementia Friendly performance on Friday 19 January at 1.30pm.
This year’s King’s panto Cinderella will hold its Relaxed Performance on Friday 12 January at 2pm with a Schools Relaxed Performance on Thursday 18 January at 10.30am.
The Festival and King’s Theatres are committed to ensuring that everyone has the chance to enjoy theatre in a supportive environment and the relaxed performances are made possible with generous support from sponsors and funders including Rowan Glen, Arts & Business Culture & Business Fun Scotland, Radio Forth’s Cash for Kids and Walter Scott.