Focus Birmingham

by Vidar Hjardeng

Martin Shaw and Jenny Seagrove are possibly best known, at present, for their roles in TV’s Judge John Deed, but ahead of a forthcoming West End stint they have both been starring in a UK tour of Clifford Odet’s play, Country Girl. Originally a movie starring Bing Crosby and Grace Kelly, this is a play set in 1950’s New York. It deals with a washed-up, alcoholic actor Frank Elgin, who is invited to make a stage comeback in a big new production by leading Broadway director, Bernie Dodd who, in the actor’s heyday, had been one of his greatest admirers. Believing that the long suffering Georgie, Elgin’s wife, is somehow responsible for the decline in Elgin’s career and, indeed life, Dodd strikes up an, ultimately, stormy, relationship with her.

The Birmingham Hippodrome staged their audio described performance to a packed house on the afternoon of Saturday 18 September and describers Julia Grundy and Jonathan Nash took fellow visually impaired patrons, and those accompanying them, on the pre-show touch tour 90 minutes before the start of the play.
We were shown some of the set and a few of the props used in the play, including the actor’s flat which had obviously seen better days, as well as some of the dressing rooms used in the fictional theatre.

Assisted by the Hippodrome’s front of house staff, Jonathan and Julia then distributed the all important headsets, in time for the VIPs to take their seats to listen to the pre-show introductory notes, 15 minutes before curtain-up. In addition to giving details about characters and costumes this background information also talked about the set which was helpful – especially to those who hadn’t been able to arrive in time for the touch tour.

Whilst a play’s dialogue is often easy to follow in terms of providing the basic story line, there is a lot visual activity e.g. facial expressions, which does require audio description so Jonathan and Julia did well to bring this out at the apposite moment – not easy when you are trying not to clash with a lot of dialogue.
The next audio-described performance at the Birmingham Hippodrome will be the perennially popular musical, Blood Brothers by Willy Russell on the afternoon of Saturday 23 October, and details on ticket prices, how to book headsets and places on the touch tour, can be obtained from the box office on 0844 338 5000.