Focus Birmingham

by Vidar Hjardeng

In my experience a Wednesday matinee doesn’t automatically result in a packed theatre, but when the show in question is courtesy of Rogers and Hammerstein as was the case at the Wolverhampton Grand on 20 October - the chances are it will. This is especially true of the ever popular Oklahoma with its well-loved melodies such as Oh What A Beautiful Morning’ ‘Surrey with a Fringe on Top’ and the rousing title number itself. In addition the doyenne of musical theatre, Marti Webb featured as Laurie’s Aunt, and she doubtless helped to swell the auditorium.

Set at the start of the last century in Midwest America’s,’ Oklahoma’ features the story of farm girl, Laurie and the rivalry of the 2 young men – happy-go-luck cowboy, Curly and the sinister farm hand, Judd -competing for her affections.

On this occasion a visiting describer - Laura Arends – took fellow visually impaired patrons and their companions onto the stage for the pre-show touch tour an hour before the start of the show. We literally got a feel of the ears of corn which provided much of the backdrop, as well as visiting the yellow wooden slatted farmhouse complete with porch, where Laurie’s and her aunt lived. There was even time for many of us to have a go at turning the handle of the farm’s butter churn – certainly a first for me!

Back in a busy foyer, Laura and the Grand’s Access officer, Janine Graeme distributed the all-important headsets, ensuring that we are in our seats in time to listen to Laura’s pre-show notes reminding us of the set and listing the characters and their costumes as well as a run down of the cast list. It was also interesting to hear about the map of North America which adorned the curtain shielding the set before the start of the show, and just before curtain-up a light picked out the state of Oklahoma itself. In fact I even had time for a quick geography lesson as my friend talked me through the location of many of the other states.

Laura’s well timed description was extremely useful especially when it came to clarifying what was in effect, a dream sequence, just before the end of the first half and without Laura’s commentary I for one, would have been very confused. Not surprisingly, thanks to a tremendous all round performance many of the audience left the Grand humming a variety of the show’s memorable songs.

It’s worth mentioning that fellow VIPs had an added bonus over and above the first class audio description in that between the touch tour and pre-show notes and expert on digital switchover was on hand to explain the process as the Midlands audiences prepare for this, next year – and all credit to the theatre for giving blind and partially sighted people the chance to find out more about this innovation which is crucial to anyone who wants to watch any Television after 2011. In fact we VIPS had to beat off many of the other audience members as our technological expert was in such demand!

The next audio described show at the Grand will be a murder mystery House of Ghosts by Colin Dexter featuring the legendary Inspector Morse played by former Dr Who, Colin Baker, on the evening of Thursday 4 November, and information on concessionary tickets, the touch tour and how to book headsets can be obtained from the box office on 01902 429212.