Be not afeard. The isle is full of noises,
Sounds and sweet airs that give delight and hurt not.
Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments
Will hum about mine ears, and sometime voices
That, if I then had waked after long sleep,
Will make me sleep again; and then, in dreaming,
The clouds methought would open, and show riches
Ready to drop upon me, that when I waked,
I cried to dream again.
The Tempest 3.2.148-156

So say Caliban in the second act of the Tempest William Shakespeare’s magical play set on a remote island after a terrible storm.

The words came to mind this morning while I was listening to an interview on the BBC’s Today Programme on Radio 4 with Kelly Hunter of the Royal Shakespeare Company based in Stratford upon Avon – the birthplace of the bard himself.

The reason was that Ms Hunter is directing a production of The Tempest specifically for children and young people who are on the autistic spectrum. You can see more about the production at the RSC’s site here. (If somebody from the RSC does read this just to let you know that it would be great if you could have a performance at the weekend as many parents and caregivers work. That is not a criticism just a point of information).

In fact the RSC has just put on a “relaxed performance” of the musical Matilda in London a couple of weeks ago. Our son with ASD went along and loved it. His neurotypical sister was rather disappointed not be be interviewed by the hordes of journalists lying in wait outside.

From my limited experience ( about four or five productions) of relaxed performances I have to say they are a brilliant idea. Simply because they allow for the the idiosyncrasies of our autistic children. The audience can make noise – which will make Ms Hunter’s performance of the Tempest much more realistic. I’m told at Matilda there were chill out spaces and the RSC provided social stories before we went along.

For many of us who love live performance these are the only way we would feel happy about taking children with ASD to an event without that horrible feeling of “being watched” by other attendees.

The aim of this blog is firstly to let my readers know about this production. If you can attend – do! Secondly to recommend to any person or caregiver of an ASD person that these are brilliant to attend and you want be made to feel like rubbish for being a normal person on the autistic spectrum.

Finally it would be great if you could share you experiences attending relaxed performances. The good and the bad. Please use the comments box below to share your story! Any links to theatre companies or cinemas who run autism friendly events would be great.

PS The first relaxed production I went to was rum by a UK based company called Oily Cart. They are also fanatstic a really deserve your support so please drop round to their site here.

Thanks in advance.