Sightless Cinema: Blind Actors Build Drama Through Sound
A workshop by Sightless Cinema is helping blind and partially sighted participants create characters and settings without visual cues. The group is developing a play about a jilted bride, with a performance planned for 2028 at Queen’s University Belfast’s SARC Sonic Lab.
Sightless Cinema is helping blind and partially sighted actors create drama through sound in a workshop developing a play for performance in 2028. It is a different kind drama visually-impaired participants can build without relying on visual cues.
Gravel, leaves and a miniature door are among the props the group uses to suggest settings and action. The workshop’s developing story follows a jilted bride on her wedding day and a household of well-meaning but chaotic characters.
Helen Kennedy plays the bride, called Nuala with the Hula. She said mainstream drama clubs had often been reluctant to include her because of concerns she might fall off the stage.
“Because my whole life is sightless and [this is] all sound based, this is just perfect for me,” Kennedy said.
Building a story without visual cues
The participants experiment with a wind machine, plastic, leaves and a foley door: a small door with a latch used to create sound effects. They use those sounds to shape characters, settings and scenes in the audience’s imagination.
Kennedy said listening for cues without visual signals could be tricky, but added that the process was fun. Jim Masterson, from Belfast, said the workshop had brought him back to drama after he stopped taking part following secondary school.
“It's good to get back into it again but it's different: Then I could see... now I'm completely blind,” Masterson said. He lost his sight after being assaulted when he was younger.
Gareth Smyth said performing arts offered a way to express yourself and that disability should not prevent people from taking part. “It's not so much about the disability but it's about what the disability can enable you to do,” he said.
Dorothy Leeman said she had surprised herself by improvising and had made new friends through the group. Andrew McBride, who has performed in other dramatic productions, described improvisation as “totally new” and “slightly terrifying”.
Dawn Hopper, who loved drama before experiencing significant sight loss, said the workshop aimed at “trying to paint a picture in people's minds” without showing the audience what was happening. She said the arts can be difficult to access when so much of the experience is visual.
“Just because you have sight loss, [it] doesn't mean that you can't be involved in arts,” Hopper said.
A performance planned for 2028
The workshop is part of a two-year project by Sightless Cinema, an organization that uses sound to tell stories without pictures. Its planned performance in 2028 will take place at Queen’s University Belfast’s SARC Sonic Lab, with audience members blindfolded.
Ciarán Taylor, who runs the workshop, said it brings together theatre, sound and radio drama techniques and gives participants a reason to meet. Philip Chong said the experience had helped him think on his feet and try different types of drama.
