Belfast performers create sound-led play for blindfolded audience

A group of blind and partially sighted performers in Belfast are creating a play through sound, using objects such as gravel, leaves and a miniature door to build scenes for an audience’s imagination. The two-year project will culminate in a performance in 2028, with audience members blindfolded.

The workshop is run by Sightless Cinema, which uses sound to tell stories without pictures. Participants are developing a comedy about a jilted bride on her wedding day and a chaotic household, while experimenting with props and sound effects including a wind machine and a miniature door with a working latch.

Helen Kennedy, who plays the bride, said she had struggled to join mainstream amateur drama groups because organisers feared she might fall off the stage. The sound-based approach, she said, suited her experience of sightlessness.

Another participant, Jim Masterson of Belfast, said the sessions had given him the chance to return to drama after decades away. He lost his sight after being assaulted when he was younger and is now completely blind.

The project brings together theatre, sound and radio-drama techniques, workshop leader Ciarán Taylor said. Sightless Cinema has partnered with Queen’s University Belfast and the Royal National Institute of Blind People, which helped recruit participants.

The final performance is planned for Queen’s University Belfast’s SARC Sonic Lab. Taylor said the project also gives blind and sighted people a reason to meet and create together.