'Sleeping Beauty' at Coleraine's Riverside Theatre ensures fun for all with captioned and relaxed panto performances

Coleraine's Riverside Theatre is staging two special performances of its panto 'Sleeping Beauty'. Credit Riverside Theatre

Everyone loves getting involved in the festive fun of a Christmas panto and Coleraine’s Riverside Theatre are ensuring that their production of ‘Sleeping Beauty’ is accessible to ALL.

‘Sleeping Beauty’, which runs from December 2-17, has two specially-staged performances – one relaxed and one captioned.

On Friday, December 8, at 6.30pm, there will be a Relaxed Performance. To create as relaxed experience as possible the house lights above the audience will be dimmed instead of turned off, ensuring the theatre is never in darkness.

Whilst the theatre doors will be closed, audience members can come and go from the space if they need a break from the performance. There is a relaxed attitude to noise during the show, so no need to try and keep anyone quiet – even during the quiet bits!

The cast of the Riverside Theatre's pantomime 'Sleeping Beauty' which has two special performances - relaxed and captioned. Credit McAuley Multimedia

The sound and lighting are adapted to more comfortable levels, there will be no strobe lights and no loud bangs or flashes. A dedicated quiet area away from the main theatre is available for those who need a break in a quiet space.

Then on Sunday, December 10, there will be a captioned performance at 5pm. Captions are similar to TV subtitles and allow audience members who are deaf, deafened or hard of hearing (or those that like to read along!) to access the live performance.

The actors’ spoken words are converted into visible text via two display screens at each side of the stage. The text scrolls at the same speed as the dialogue, making it easy to follow with the action on stage.

Tickets are on sale now via www.riversidetheatre.org.uk