Autism-friendly Playhouse panto performance

As part of an on-going policy to make theatre more accessible for everyone, the Liverpool Playhouse will hold a autism friendly performance of Cinderella, the rock ‘n’ roll panto on Monday (January 9) at 7.30pm. The performance is one of the first of its type outside London, and will give families the opportunity to experience a fun night out they can enjoy together with the comfort of knowing the production is being performed with their needs specifically in mind. The idea of introducing an autism-friendly performance came from the Everyman and Playhouse’s regular meetings with their Access Forum. The forum advise on a range of issues and it was suggested a performance of this sort would be beneficial to many families and individuals who were previously not able to access and fully enjoy the live theatre experience due to the constraints that normal theatre-viewing etiquette requires. During the run of Cinderella there will also be a visit by the National Blind Children’s Association. They will go on a touch tour before the show to familiarise themselves with the cast, costumes and props before enjoying and audio described performance of the play. There are two audio described performances of the rock ‘n’ roll panto this year, on Thursday, January 19. The Playhouse also offers regular captioned and sign language performances of in-house productions. The BSL performance of Cinderella is on Saturday January 21 at 2pm, while the captioned performance is at 2pm on Saturday January 14. It is hoped that if the autism friendly performance of Cinderella is successful that it could then be extended to further future productions.