Talking about a revolution

Five years ago, Maria O’Shodi established Extant, described as the first British arts production company for the blind, managed by visually impaired people. Although the disability arts sector continues to grow, according to O’Shodi support and recognition for visually impaired artists is at the bottom of the pecking order.

But O’Shodi hopes, through her pioneering efforts, this will soon change. This weekend, as part of ‘Xposure’, the Disability Arts Festival running throughout November, a seminar organised by Extant will address issues surrounding ‘Access for the Performing Arts for Visually Impaired Artists and Audiences’ at Sadler’s Wells theatre in London. The event coincides with the first major project by Extant, who collaborated with Turtle Key Arts to bring a 50-year old Croatian company of blind actors, the New Life Theatre Company, to Britain for a national tour.

O’Shodi discovered the company’s work on a visit to Croatia last year at an international festival of blind theatre, and was not only struck by the quality, but by the level of support the group received in the Communist era which has continued after the fall of the regime.

‘When we saw their work, we were bowled over by it,’ O’Shodi recalls. ‘We decided we wanted to bring it to England, but tour it beyond London.’

‘They’re [New Life Theatre Company] real veterans with so much history – it’s fascinating how Communism really supported the company years ago. They were founded because of this philanthropic gesture of the Communist regime at the time, which supported lots of different workers’ groups,’ O’Shodi explains, adding that such support is far harder to come by in the UK.

‘In this country, there is so much competition. Unless you’ve got a really high profile, it’s very hard to get the kind of business support like New Life get in Croatia, which is really high.

‘It’s been much more of a struggle for us to raise the funding to bring them over, but eventually, we have, after a lot of hard work!’

The production, Zero and Nils, is based on a series of short stories by Russian writer, D.I. Harms, and is described as a highly physical, humorous and often absurdist piece.

However, O’Shodi has added another element to the production. Her vision was to create an inclusive atmosphere for the audience, to ensure a shared experience between the blind, the sighted, and also, the deaf.

As the performance is in Croatian, all audience members will wear headphones with a simultaneous audio language and audio description facility, while the performance will also be signed for the hearing impaired.

Shaun Dawson, of Turtle Key Arts, says he hopes the production will be groundbreaking in terms of the segregation visually impaired audiences often experience in theatres.

‘The idea is to make this inclusive, so everyone is in the same boat – whether you’re blind, visually impaired or sighted you are going to need a language translation for this performance,’ he says.

‘I’ve really warmed to the idea and I think it’s a really brave thing Maria is doing,’ Dawson enthuses, adding it seemed a natural progression to make the experience totally inclusive by incorporating a sign language interpreter for hearing impaired theatre-goers as well.

For O’Shodi, the performance marks an important stage in the life of Extant, who have been working towards producing their own creative material after initially coming together as a research and development group.

‘Extant emerged from a group of blind performers who felt there was very little in terms of professional theatre for and by blind people in this country,’ she explains. ‘The group came together mainly as a research and development group, but as time has gone on and we have evolved and become stronger in our convictions, we’ve now got to the point where we are working on our own creative material and also, producing this show for the Croatian company.’

O’Shodi, who is visually impaired herself, has worked in theatre for 15 years. Her vision for Extant is to produce a completely new style of performance, borne out of the restrictions visually impaired performers encounter on stage, and as audiences.

‘It’s a very, very specific style of theatre that’s accessible for us, as visually impaired performance, and also accessible for our audience.

‘It’s something I hope will develop into its own strand of theatre.’

For a young company like Extant, the experience and quality of work produced by Zagreb’s New Life Theatre Company has been inspirational – and something to work towards.

‘I hope we can produce our own work in the future, that is as strong as the work produced by New Life, but comes out of our culture which is different to Eastern Europe – they haven’t got the same sort of civil rights ethos that drives our work,’ O’Shodi says, adding that international festivals such as the one in Croatia are a fantastic forum for artistic exchange.

‘Zero and Nils’ is playing at the Lilian Bayliss Theatre at Sadler’s Wells November 8/9 at 8pm, tickets £10/£8, 020 7863 8000; the Courtyard Theatre in Hereford November 12/13 at 7.45pm, £8/£6.50, 01432 359 252; Contact Theatre, Manchester November 15/16,8pm, £9/£6, 0161 274 0600; and Nottingham Playhouse November 19, 8pm, £9/£5, 0115 841 9419.