Sound Installation Blindness Extends at London's Donmar Warehouse

Though theaters remain shut down in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis, the Donmar Warehouse has temporarily reopened with a socially distanced sound installation called Blindness. Originally scheduled to run through August 22, the sound installation will now be available through September 5.

Based on the dystopian novel by Nobel Prize winner José Saramago, adapted by Simon Stephens and directed by Walter Meierjohann, the hourlong installation runs four times a day for a limited number of visitors with seating arranged in accordance with social distancing guidelines. Acclaimed stage and screen actor Juliet Stevenson voices the Storyteller/Doctor’s Wife as visitors listen on headphones to this gripping story of an unimaginable global pandemic—and its profoundly hopeful conclusion.

Blindness is told through an immersive sound design using binaural technology by Ben and Max Ringham. The Donmar Warehouse has been reimagined to allow for social distancing by designer Lizzie Clachan, with lighting design by Jessica Hung Han Yun.

All visitors are required to wear a face covering throughout their visit. The bar areas are closed and there is a one-way system around the building. There are sanitizing points throughout the venue; the headphones, seats, toilets and public areas are thoroughly cleaned between each installation. Learn more here.

Can't get across the pond to experience the show? To accompany this installation, the Donmar podcast Reclaiming Blindness is available to download. Stephens interviews Professor Hannah Thompson to unpack the representations of blindness in both the novel and this adaptation. They also discuss the exciting possibilities for creatively using the non-visual in theater today.