Sound Installation Blindness to Open at Off-Broadway's Daryl Roth Theatre

Great news for New York audiences! Though theaters remain shut down in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis, off-Broadway's Daryl Roth Theatre will temporarily reopen this fall with the socially distanced sound installation Blindness. The unique and timely work celebrated a sold-out premiere (which was extended) at London’s Donmar Warehouse from August 22 through September 5. Run dates for Blindness will be announced later, pending the approval of public health protocols in accordance with current New York City and state COVID-19 guidelines.

“We are grateful to be able to present this beautiful, stirring, and thoughtful work, and are very fortunate to have flexible space that allows a return to shared experiences in a safe and controlled way,” said producer Daryl Roth. Blindness marks one of New York City’s first approved indoor events for in-person attendees since March 2020. Additional productions of Blindness are also planned to open in the coming months at Washington, D.C.’s Shakespeare Theatre Company and Toronto’s Princess of Wales Theatre.

Based on the dystopian novel by Nobel Prize winner José Saramago, adapted by Tony Award-winning playwright Simon Stephens (The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time) and directed by Walter Meierjohann, the installation will run 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.

All visitors are required to wear a face covering throughout their visit; all visitors and staff will have their temperature taken upon arrival at the venue. Tickets will be sold online to a limited number of attendees per showing. All tickets will be sold in pairs, enabling two people in a “social bubble” to attend and be seated together. Each two-seat “pod” will be socially distanced six feet away from other pods. Headphones will be individually sanitized between each showing.

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.