Vidar Hjardeng MBE - RSC Richard III, 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 Royal Shakespeare company’s production of Richard III at Stratford-upon-Avon on Saturday 16 July at 1.15pm with audio description by professional Describers Carolyn Smith and Annette Stocken.

This is the last in Shakespeare's first history cycle of plays, a story of jealousy, manipulation and deceit, directed by Gregory Duran with Arthur Hughes playing the role of Richard of Gloucester.

Vidar began by telling Toby that Richard III is his favourite Shakespeare play, one that he has seen a number of times and that the audio described matinee performance proved that to be no exception with a great performance by Arthur Hughes as Richard of Gloucester.

Vidar continued by saying that the audio description by Carolyn and Anette was as usual up to their very high standard. There was a great touch tour prior to the audio described performance of the set, costumes and props, with Vidar saying that it was much appreciated to have the presence of almost all of the cast for the touch tour providing a great opportunity to speak to the Actors and find out more about their approach to the characters that they were playing on stage which is a real privilege and one that most of the sighted audience would like to have too.

Toby and Vidar continued by talking about some of the more dramatic parts of the production and how they were brought to life through the audio description and how in many Shakespeare plays there is quite a lot of dialogue. Although you might be able to follow the plot with out any description you would miss some of the more subtle movements and expressions played out by the Actors in their roles and also how the use of lighting and props give more of a feel and emotion to the production.

There will be another audio described performance of Richard III at the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-upon-Avon on Friday 7 October at 7.15pm and more details about this and other described performances can be found by visiting the access pages of the RSC website - https://www.rsc.org.uk/your-visit/access/

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