'It's not anarchy, it's inclusivity': How relaxed performances are opening up theatre

Opening up: Battersea Arts Centre and Touretteshero are working together to make a relaxed venue
Morley von Sternberg
Zoe Paskett3 April 2019

The “traditional” conventions of theatre behaviour usually demand silence, darkness – and a whole lot of shushing should anyone act any differently. It hasn’t been a particularly welcoming place for those whose behaviours lay outside these traditional parameters.

“For a long time, I wrote theatre off and thought it wasn’t a space that I could occupy,” says artist and theatre-maker Jess Thom, who has Tourette’s syndrome and set up Touretteshero, a platform to celebrate and educate about the condition. “I felt that going to the theatre, and still now going to some theatres, takes a lot of extra labour and means putting part of my identity at risk. I think theatres should be places where you take creative risks but they should not be places where people feel like parts of who they are are at risk.”

Thom and her initiative Touretteshero have teamed up with Battersea Arts Centre in an effort to make it a relaxed venue. This means striving to make the whole space and experience accessible to everyone, from booking tickets to arriving to enjoying the show. All shows will be relaxed, unless it’s a special circumstance.

Relaxed performances are becoming ever more commonplace. They provide a less formal experience by relaxing attitudes to movement and sound from the audience, and attempting to remove the stressful aspects of going to see a show.

“They’re particularly good for people who have learning disabilities, or neurological conditions,” says Thom. “There'll be people with dementia or young babies, people who want to watch theatre in an inclusive environment.

“Lots of people are worried that if you start relaxing the rules around theatre etiquette that there’s anarchy, but in my experience there isn’t. It’s a more comfortable way to watch theatre that doesn't ask people to put themselves through discomfort or pain or deny the humanness of their bodies.”

Touretteshero's Jess Thom
James Lyndsay

“Theatre can be uptight,” says BAC artistic director David Jubb. “All rules and regulations with lots of shushing and tutting – and then we wonder why theatres aren’t more diverse! Performances at Battersea Arts Centre tend to be live with no ‘fourth wall’ between the artist and audience, so working with Touretteshero felt like a fantastic opportunity for us: to further open up the space, to welcome more people in, to find a framework for becoming a more relaxed venue.

“Over time we think it will open up who’s on stage and who’s in the audience.”

BAC's team view becoming a relaxed venue as a process, rather than a goal – it’s about trying to improve the experience as much as possible and review as they go along. Thom outlines the main features as being a clear understanding of what it means when booking, multi-sensory information before the show about possible triggers, staff training, a chill-out space outside the auditorium, a plan for managing complaints and announcements that give people the freedom to move around.

“We need to expect to go to the theatre and be watching that with a diverse range of people and not thinking that theatre needs to be consumed in one way,” she says. “Most importantly for me is the idea of being able to look at the whole theatre’s programme and know that I can go to any show without having to divulge personal information about my condition or medical requirements.”

A number of other shows and London theatres offer relaxed performances, including The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time, The Lion King, RSC’s Matilda The Musical, the National Theatre and Shakespeare’s Globe to name a few.

“Relaxed performances are fundamentally an invitation,” says David Bellwood, the Globe’s access manager. “At Shakespeare’s Globe we have two radically democratic spaces, but democracies can only function when no person is barred from contributing. In hosting a relaxed performance we’re acknowledging that all people, in their wonderful variety, have a right to engage with our plays.”

Thom wants people to “get more used to hearing the term”. Instances of relaxed performances are increasing, but it’s still a one-off in a longer run. In pioneering the initiative of a relaxed venue at BAC, Thom hopes “that it provides a model for embedding access, seeing it as a creative tool, something that can be used to enrich shows and enrich venues and enrich space”.

Her experiences as an audience member and a performer give her the perspective to see just how beneficial relaxed theatre can be for everyone in the room.

“I performed Samuel Beckett’s Not I monologue with a really mixed audience of people with and without Tourette's syndrome and actually that was probably one of the best performances I did, with lots of other people with Tourette’s in, because I really had to concentrate and focus.

“I think if the work is strong and the approach is right, then it enriches the experience for everybody. It’s not anarchy, it’s inclusivity.”

For more information about Battersea Arts Centre as a relaxed venue, visit bac.org.uk

For dates of relaxed performances at Shakespeare’s Globe, visit shakespearesglobe.com

More upcoming relaxed performances include The Lion King on June 6 and Matilda The Musical on June 9.

Touretteshero also provides more information about relaxed performances here

The theatres in London you have to go to

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