The Sound of Inclusivity: 'Relaxed' shows widen appeal of Cork Opera House blockbuster 

A special performance of The Sound Of Music will be aimed at audiences with sensory differences, including autistic people

Maria (Wendy Carr) and the Von Trapp children dance and sing from the top of Bell's Field in Cork ahead of the Opera House production which opens this week

This Thursday, Cork Opera House will begin a run of 37 performances of its The Sound Of Music production, in what is the largest in-house musical the venue has ever produced.

One of those performances, on August 18, will be ‘relaxed’, designed especially for those who have sensory differences, including autistic people.

This is not a commercial activity for the Opera House — for the relaxed performance they will typically sell the auditorium at between 50-70% capacity. Instead, it’s very much focused on creating an inclusive and accessible space, says the venue’s CEO Eibhlín Gleeson.

The Cork Opera House is for everybody, that’s why we exist. But you can’t say you’re for everybody, and then not make allowances for the fact that everybody doesn’t have access to it.

To create the dialled-down atmosphere of a relaxed performance, the team at the Opera House needed to look at the sensory stimuli throughout the show and the venue to see where they could make changes.

They had started with the annual Christmas panto a few years ago, says Gleeson. They worked with an autistic artist in residence at the Opera House, Jodie O’Neill, to help them understand how to engage with the autistic community.

“The panto is ours, so it was relatively easy for us to integrate the necessary changes into the fabric of the show,” explains Gleeson.

“The first time we did it was so impactful. I would go so far as to say it changed the culture of the Opera House forever. The amount of pride the staff had when it was a success. It was a huge objective, to really change the show consistently for one performance, go back into rehearsal, go back and relearn the show, but then to see the joy and to experience the feelgood factor that came from doing it well was life-changing.”

Describing it as “such a rich experience”, Gleeson says it felt important to create these relaxed performances.

“To be able to just throw open the door and say, ‘come on in, you’re more than welcome. Bring your service dogs, bring your sensory toys, bring whatever it is you need to help regulate’.”

During the relaxed performances, people can leave the auditorium as many times as they want. They can go and sit in the bar to get some quiet time and can come back in any time they want. They can ‘stim’ (a way to regulate emotions, cope with sensory overload, or express excitement) in whatever way they need to be able to regulate themselves.

“There’s no pressure on you to do anything other than what you want to do at this time,” adds Gleeson.

She says the feedback they’ve received on the relaxed pantos has been largely positive, and they’ve invited families to tell them where they fell short or where they can make changes.

“We’ve had people tell us of the joy and relief they’ve felt because all of a sudden they felt like they had permission to come to the panto.”

Rainbow Club Cork supports young autistic people and their families. Its CEO Karen O’Mahony says the relaxed performances at the Opera House meant her family was able to go to the panto together, after many years of not being able to.

“Having the opportunity to go to a relaxed performance, that’s giving my family and others like ours the opportunity to get out and do it and reduce the anxiety around it,” said O’Mahony.

“I know, as a neurodiverse person as well, chaotic situations can be very overwhelming for me, and any accommodations that can be made to allow us to be able to access performances, for me and for the families that we work with, that’s huge.”

She says she’s excited about being able to attend The Sound Of Music in the Opera House in August.

The Sound Of Music, and musicals like that, are part of my childhood memories. With this relaxed performance, it means my family have a chance to share something special together

As well as making adjustments to the performance and the venue, the Opera House has worked hard to create visual guides that help families get a clear picture of how the event will go, from entering the venue to watching the performance.

A visual guide, which includes social stories, “will introduce some of the cast, and some of the storyline. It will also show you where you get your tickets and where you go to the box office, and where the bathrooms are,” explains Gleeson.

This is so important to families, says O’Mahony. “The Opera House has done a lot of forward-thinking about what they can do to make the experience as pleasant as possible, and that then reduces the anxiety around trying something new.”

For Gleeson, this is just the start of their plans to promote inclusivity at the Opera House.

“My hope is that we work towards a very inclusive Opera House for everybody. We will be seeing a lot more relaxed performances in our future.”

This is exactly the news O’Mahony and families like hers welcome.

“You create an environment that is inclusive, understanding, accepting of everybody, and we will come, and we will want to come back.”