Blog two of three in a series in which Jane Cordell explores disability and access to the arts.

My blog in October 2024 (read it here) described how, as a deaf person, I tried (with mixed results) to escape into the arts after the death of my father.

This article reviews four recent live music and theatre experiences to see what can be learned.

I posed myself a question: Can access issues and the quality of the artistic experience be separated? Or are they inextricably linked? Read on for what I discovered.

Manchester Cathedral - Nine Lessons and Carols
Although it would be far easier to follow a service such as this on TV with captions provided, it is not very Christmassy. Being in a cathedral full of people singing together is a totally different experience from humming along at home.

The last time I attended this service, I emailed in advance to ask if I could reserve seats from where I could follow the choir. (Choristers annunciate clearly, so are a joy to lipread!). On that occasion, I was allocated reserved seats with a good view, and was really grateful. This time I was given a flat ‘no’; all the seats towards the choir ‘were reserved for the choir’s family and friends’. I appreciate that, of course, but isn’t there a case to be made for a few access seats also to be made available? Wouldn’t they have done this for example, for a wheelchair user? Why is deafness any different? I put these points to the person I emailed, but received no response.

The printed order of service providing all the sung and spoken words, apart from the bible readings, was a boon. I wanted to try to sing with others in the public carols but was too far from the choir to feel confident to try to do this. As a musician I tried to follow the choir’s conductor and/or a confident-looking other visitor, but I found it a much less immersive experience.

Overall, it was a lovely experience but with just a few small changes it could have been so much more accessible.

Access: 2/5 Experience: 3/5


Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM): Opera -  ‘L’Etoile’
This entertaining and vivid comic opera was well performed and produced – colourful and visually appealing. Even I as a deaf person, could appreciate the power of some of the soloists’ voices. Sung in French, there were captions at each side of the stage. It was a slight pity therefore that (rather like a later episode of Emily in Paris) the language switched. When the actors spoke, they used English which meant I missed all of the spoken dialogue. The story itself was so silly that it almost didn’t matter, but I was left wondering how it sounded to the hearing audience.

I admit, I chose to go and see this performance almost entirely because it was captioned. The RNCM’s Box Office was helpful when I emailed about seats in a good position. My friend, Hormoz (also a fellow co-Director) had to call to make the payment; expecting all audience members to be able to make fluent voice phone calls is one (avoidable?) hiccup in some booking systems!

Access: 4/5 Experience: 4/5


Royal Exchange Theatre: musical - Spend Spend Spend
I chose one of two captioned performances at this theatre in the round. Both were on the same day. StageText provided the captioning. This slick production was popular. I booked in person and chose a couple of the available seats.

I was pleasantly surprised to receive an email shortly before the day of the performance to advise me that they had switched our seats for ones with better access to the caption screens. I have never experienced this sort of service before. I had registered as an ‘access customer’ some time ago and the Royal Exchange had picked up on this and proactively improved our seating – wow! It really felt good and definitely enhanced the whole experience. I was able to enjoy this vibrant, fast-paced musical which raised poignant questions about class, wealth and status. Though I could only partially access the sound of the songs, being able to see the live musicians on a video feed also helped.

Access: 5/5 Experience: 4/5


HOME Manchester: theatre - Mariupol Drama
As with the RNCM’s opera, one of the reasons I chose to see this play was because all performances were captioned - it being performed in Ukrainian by Ukrainian actors. The set incorporated a large screen, mid-stage showing the whole audience the English version, nicely in sync with the actors’ speeches. But an equally important motivation for going was the subject matter. This was ‘lived experience’ theatre - actors from the Mariupol theatre recalling vividly their time under Russian siege with over one thousand other souls at the theatre. And how they narrowly escaped prior to the building being bombed to oblivion. It was an engrossing, powerful experience. And for me it felt good to experience everything in exactly the same way as the rest of the audience.

Access: 5/5 Experience: 5/5


Can you have a great arts experience when the access is iffy?

I think the answer is that yes, it may be possible, but it is often much harder work and it certainly feels as if that work falls to you as the visitor usually, and not the arts organisation. The standout exception was the Royal Exchange – kudos to them.

Inevitably, if, as a person with disability, you have to devote quite a lot more time to simply getting your ticket and seat sorted out, or if the seat as at the cathedral (and appreciating this was a service rather than a booked event) makes you feel excluded, it saps the potential for immersing yourself fully in the music and/or drama.

Look out for my third and final blog about arts access. In it I will look at a number of small changes organisations could make to improve access and draw more diverse audiences.

We are what we do and we love what we do.