Vidar Hjardeng MBE - The Playboy of the West Indies, Audio Described Theatre Review

RNIB Connect Radio’s Toby Davey is joined again by Vidar Hjardeng MBE, Inclusion and Diversity Consultant for ITV News across England, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Channel Islands for the next in his regular Connect Radio audio described theatre reviews.

This week Vidar was reviewing the ‘Playboy of the West Indies’ at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre on Tuesday 21 June 20222 with audio description by professional describers Carolyn Smith and Jonathan Nash.

Based on the Irish Classic The Playboy Of The Western World, Mustapha Matura’s hilarious reinvention Playboy Of The West Indies has been delighting audiences and critics alike world-wide for over 35 years

Now in this world premiere production the classic play has been transformed into a glorious new musical with a toe-tapping, finger-snapping score firmly rooted in the Caribbean. 

In Peggy’s rum bar in sleepy Mayaro village, a mysterious stranger stumbles in out of the darkness. With a voice like honey he tantalises the women and unnerves the men with a terrible story. As he weaves his magic spell on Peggy, her forthcoming nuptials to Stanley are thrown into doubt, and the village is plunged into uproar. While the women vie for this stranger’s attention, the men plot his downfall. Will events conspire to unmask his wild tales of derring-do?

This bright calypso musical, a feel-good reboot of Mustapha Matura’s play, features a tremendous cast and sweet duets” The Guardian

With an infectious score by Clement Ishmael (Five Guys Named Moe, The Lion King) and Dominique Le Gendre (Royal Opera House, Talawa Theatre) and co-direction from Nicolas Kent (Grenfell: Value Engineering, Ain’t Misbehaving) 

Toby began by asking Vidar whether it felt like the Caribbean at the Rep in this witty, vibrant and colourful musical production of the ‘Playboy of the West Indies’.

Vidar praised the very professional and engaging audio description by Carolyn and Jonathan and due to the cancellation of the performance the previous night Carolyn and Jonathan did not have the chance to do a dry run of their audio description prior to the actual described performance and Vidar commented that he would have not known if Carolyn and Jonathan had not told him so as their description was top notch as always.

  

To find out more about the Birmingham Repertory Theatre and their access offer for blind and partially sighted people do visit-

https://www.birmingham-rep.co.uk/your-visit/accessibility/audio-described-performances/ 


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