Play - Bethune Immagine AD - Factory Theatre

Mala’s comments on the play at Factory Theatre

Play: Bethune Imagined

Written and directed by Ken Gass

The AD performance was on

November 30, 2010

The play was about the life of a Canadian doctor who was a social activist and who became internationally renowned for his work in Spain and China during the 1930s. The play focused on his romantic life with three women. The play was easy to follow and most of it was dialogue.

The AD was sponsored by Sun Life Financial who provided the head sets for the AD and covered the cost of the two female describers. The description was done live during the performance.

We were given our head sets before the show and we were seated 20 minutes before the show began. The describers provided a prologue to the play 15 minutes before the show. They took turns describing the program notes and the stage set. They described each character in the sequence that they appeared in the play. The audience was chatting so it was difficult to hear the AD prologue before the play.

The first describer described Act 1; the second describer described Act 2.

They were both whispering throughout the description. It was difficult to hear them. Also my head set had static so that interrupted the AD. They described the visual action in a factual, reporting style. It sounded like a set of instructions. Even when they were dramatic moments, these were not portrayed by the describers’ voices.

It was not an entertaining experience for me. This experience was stressful because I had to hold the devise and move it around to ease the static. Even with the volume to the highest, I could not hear the describers. My head was hurting when I got home. The devise was adjusted during intermission and the static was better during Act 2. But because of the describers’ whispers, I had to strain to hear the information. The play was great. It was mostly dialogue so I would have enjoyed it better without the description. Having to hold a head set and dealing with static was very distracting for me. The play could be adapted for radio because the dialogue was detailed enough without AD.

20 blind people attended the play. I spoke with some of them and they indicated that they were fine with the description. They all said “it was good”. When I asked in what way it was good, they could not say. There was a reception afterwards with refreshments for the blind people who attended. Rose told us that this AD is part of a larger project on accessibility that she is involved in. She said that they will be other plays in the new year.

I don’t plan to attend any more plays with the conventional style of AD.

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