Visual impairment no obstacle for adept Bard lovers
ASTONISHING confidence, high energy and commitment marked a cast of blind and visually-impaired pupils’ performance of an abridged version of Shakespeare’s popular play Romeo and Juliet at the 10th annual Shakespeare Schools Festival of SA (SSFSA).
Guided by director Derek Daly, the cast of 15 blind and visually-impaired high-school pupils from the Pioneer School for the Blind in Worcester on Saturday delivered their 30-minute version of the play with such aplomb that they received a standing ovation.
“I think the experience was extremely rewarding, because any actor has to be brave to get up on stage, and particularly to deliver a line from Shakespeare with flair,” Daly said.
“To be a blind or visually-impaired actor takes even more courage. That’s what made the performances special, in that actors had to rely on each other to find their place on stage,” he added.
The festival, now in its 10th year, has more than 2 000 pupils from 35 Western Cape schools participating.
It is running until Saturday at the Fugard Theatre.
Daly said the actors used special sets of carpets to navigate across the stage, holding hands from time to time to steer each other around the set.
They set Romeo and Juliet in Camps Bay, modernising it by including things such as a DJ with a play list.
“The cast made this play their own. The best jokes and lines came from them. The fatal message that Romeo doesn’t receive about Juliet’s fake death is because he runs out of airtime and cannot access his messages.
“The visual barriers the actors have fell completely away, and the audience was transfixed by their talent and courage,” said Daly.
Daly said he was grateful that the festival existed for young people to discover their talents and overcome their fears.
SSFSA founder and organiser Kseniya Filinova-Bruton, who is from Russia, said the actors practised and prepared long in advance for their performance.
Their blindness and visual-impairment made their performances “even more exceptional, so moving and absolutely wonderful”, she said.
Filinova-Bruton said the festival allowed pupils to choose a play. With the help of their educators and the SSFSA team, they could present it in their own way, using some of the Bard’s texts interspersed with their own scripts, designing the costumes and props, and handling all the creative aspects themselves.
Performances start at 7pm and are open to the public. The full programme is online via https://thefugard.com/shakespeareschoolsfestival/ Tickets cost R90 each.
To book, call 021 461 4554 or visit www.thefugard.com