Wednesday 12 February at 2:15pm
Linbury Studio Theatre, LAMDA
Running Time: 1 hour 40 minutes, no interval
Content warnings: Contains references to child loss, excessive or gratuitous violence, gruesome deaths, incest, female objectification, parental death, rape and sexual assault, suicide and explicit language. Multiple references to use of blood. This performance contains the use of haze and smoke.
• You are welcome to leave and re-enter from the theatre as you need.
• There is a break-out room available called The Student Common Room.
• House lighting is on low throughout, never going to full black-out.
• Loud noises are reduced.
• No strobe lighting is used.
• You are welcome to react to the show however you want.
• At the end of this document is a show synopsis and sensory guide .
Here is a guide to sensory information symbols in this document:
Indicates potentially loud or sudden noises
Indicates bright or sudden lighting changes
Indicates a sad or potentially distressing scene
Indicates fighting, or use of guns/weapons
Indicates audience participation
When you arrive at LAMDA, the entrance to the building and Linbury Theatre is the closest entrance to Baron’s Court Station.
There will be a member of staff on the door who will take your name and scan your QR code ticket.
This is the Theatre Foyer and entrance to the Linbury Theatre. You may be asked to wait here until the house is open. You will be shown how to get to the Linbury Studio Theatre by an usher.
Toilets are located next to the bar.
LAMDA staff will be wearing LAMDA branded T-Shirts or lanyards.
If you need any assistance whilst in the building, please ask them.
When you enter the theatre, an Usher will take your ticket from you.
You are welcome to sit wherever you like.
You can come and go from the space whenever you like. The house lights will stay on low throughout the show.
There is a break-out space called ‘The Common Room’ which you are welcome to use at any point during the performance.
The Common Room is accessed via a corridor that follows on from the bar and the toilets.
If you aren’t sure at any point during your visit where to go, please ask an usher, who will be happy to assist you.
Before the show begins, the actors will introduce themselves and the characters they are playing.
The lights in the theatre will dim and she show will start. You can leave and re-enter if you need to through the doors you came in through.
At the end of the show the actors will come on and bow. You are welcome to clap at this point if you would like.
The actors change parts regularly throughout the play, sometimes during a scene. Keep an eye out for projections or items of costume that can help identify a character or signal a change.
Below is a brief synopsis of the play to aid in contextualizing the following sensory guide.
From the everyday to the astonishing, and the ordinary to the miraculous, the Roman poet Ovid's stories of epic impossibilities explore the power of transformation, the resilience of humans, and the wonder of life. The myths of Metamorphoses have inspired generations of writers, including Shakespeare. Over two thousand years later, they are reimagined for our world by three leading British playwrights, and feature anarchy, shape-shifting and a burning chariot of fire.
The play starts in darkness. Throughout this scene there are multiple blackouts to represent the beginning of the world.
As the world is created, the actors come on stage making a lot of noise and moving around with quick movements
At the end of the scene there is a bright light that may shine in your eyes. There is then a ‘boom’ sound and a blackout into the next scene.
There’s a loud bang of metal buckets on the floor. There is a loud electric guitar played. Throughout the scene one of the actors plays a drum, which beats loudly. There is also loud singing by the Nymph. There is a graphic description of Actaeon turning into a stag and then being ripped apart by his dogs and eaten. There is then a ‘boom’ sound and a blackout into the next scene
At the end of the scene, the other actors cheer and applaud Orpheus as he leaves the stage.
The actor walks onto stage wearing a spider costume.
The other actors are on stage in this scene and are doing fake loud laughter throughout as the ‘audience’.
Arachne is telling the story about how people assumed she was a pupil of Minerva and is getting annoyed about it, and raises her voice to shout at the Gods
She further gets angry when describing her workshe threaded an accurate description of what the gods did to people; murder and sexual assault. This is also into a microphone so is even louder. She then tells us that she attempted suicide via hanging, but Minerva wouldn’t let her, and turned her into a spider instead.
At the end of the scene there is a loud ‘boom’ sound and a blackout.
There is tense underscoring of music as Procris is describing hiding and watching Cephalus, calling out to another ‘woman’, when he hears her and throws his spear at her.
The spear is represented by a sand bag. The sand bag falls on her head This is filled with soft fabric so it doesn’t hurt the actor
There is a bright flash of light as this happens. Procris dies.
A bell rings at the end of the scene.
There is a hustle and bustle of everyone talking and getting ready for the scene, which is loud and with music.
There is a song and dance at the end of this scene. The actor playing Pluto shouts quite loudly. There are flashing lights during the song and dance.
No distressing action.
The cast make wind noises which may be unsettling.
There is tense piano music playing. Io describes how Jupiter came to take advantage of young women like her, tracked her down and raped her
There is haze and a fog machine during this speech
Io tries to tell her father that she is the cow, but can’t communicate, which is sad.
Mercury pulls out a knife, and pops the balloon eyes on Argus’ head. The actor is wearing a hard hat so he won’t be hurt. The popping of balloons makes loud noises. She then describes how Mercury cuts off Argus’ head.
At the end of the scene the wind noises and sad piano continues.
Myrrha starts the scene telling us about her attempted suicide, by hanging.
The actors make whistling wind noises, and make knocking noises against a wooden box to represent walking.
There is a very brief blackout, replaced by 2 small torches.
We hear a sound of a sword being pulled out of it’s sheath.
As she runs and resettles, there is tense singing that gets louder, until she turns into a tree.
Both actors are using microphones throughout this scene.
There is audience participation, where someone is selected to be Tiresias, and stands at the front of the stage.
Juno is angry, shouts and blinds Tiresias; the audience member is asked to put on a blindfold Jupiter rewards Tiresias by making a prophet - he is very loud as he does this.
There is a lot of applause at the end of this scene by the cast.
There is a party in this scene, which has loud music and flashing colourful lights. The actors pull out the insides of a toy pig, and then rip the head off.
At the end of the scene there is a loud ‘boom’ and a blackout.
The actor comes in in handcuffs and chains. She explains that her son, Polydorous, was killed by a king, who was meant to keep him safe
She then explains that the ghost of Achilles demands the sacrifice of a young girl in his honour, which was Polyxena, her daughter.
She describes going for a walk and finding her son’s dead body on the beach.
She describes how she kills the King, which is quite graphic.
Towards the end of the scene she raises her voice and is getting upset.
There is loud music into the next scene.
No distressing action.
There is loud piano music and flashing lights throughout this scene
There is applause at the end of the scene, and a ‘boom’ and a blackout
The actor playing Medea enters from behind the audience.
She gives a knife to Pelias’ daughter - this is a fake knife.
The daughter slits his throat - fake blood comes out of his mouth, and there is blood all over the daughter’s hands.
Medea then snaps his neck. Medea strangles both of her children. All of this action has all been choreographed with a fight director. There is a ‘boom’ and then a blackout.
As the space transforms into the sun palace, there are bright lights and a loud saxophone playing As Phaethon starts to drive the chariot, there is loud background music, Phoebus uses a microphone to talk louder, and there are slow pulsating lights. As the world collapses, there is lots of rattling, rumbling noises and flashing lights. At the end of the scene there is a loud guitar. There is then a blackout.
During the end people will clap and may stand up, cheer or shout to tell the actors they did a good job.