The Producers said, “It was shocking, extreme and eccentric!” Our members said, “It was a frivolous extravaganza.” ,
An exclusive insight to how this very visual production was delivered to blind people.
On Wednesday 15th July 2026, almost 30 Eye Matter members decided to ignore the England vs Argentina World Cup semi-final and head to The Garrick Theatre to enjoy an evening of extreme, eccentric humour with The Producers. This intimate, 733-seat theatre, with a stage protruding into the auditorium and a 12-piece swing band perched above, (apart from the drummer lurking somewhere beneath the actors’ feet), continues its reputation of presenting unique productions since opening in 1889.
This was the first major London revival of Mel Brooks’ The Producers, based on his cult 1967 film. The story begins when ‘down-on-his-luck’ producer Max Bialystock teams up with timid accountant Leo Bloom to stage a sure-fire flop which will get them rich, quick. However, their scheme backfires disastrously when the show gains thunderous applause and unstoppable laughter. But what was the reaction of its audience of visually impaired Eye Matter members?
Graham, who attended with his wife Rosalind, said, “Many thanks to Suzie and the team, for organising the trip to the Producers. It was highly entertaining! The staff and cast at the Garrick were very friendly, helpful and informative. I thoroughly enjoyed the touch tour which was very well done, as was the audio description. All in all, a thoroughly enjoyable evening.”
Ibrahim agreed, “I just wanted to give a big shout-out and thank you to Eye Matter for organising this event, it was a really good show and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. The Support as offered by Joe and Hayley was spot-on.”
Delivered as an audio described performance of a very visual production, The Producers proved a challenge for our fabulous describer Jonathan Nash.
Jonathan, from Sightlines Audio Description Services said, The Producers was certainly a challenging show to work on, but great fun nonetheless. Comedy is always the hardest genre to describe as we have to time our delivery so the joke lands at the very same moment for everyone. Visual jokes sometimes require an additional set up, perhaps mentioning the item that caused the hilarity within the pre-show notes or on the touch tour but without any specific scene reference to avoid spoilers.”
At their first dry run-through, Jonathan and his colleague Bex, (who wrote the second half) discuss the use of different terminologies and its effect during the dialogue, being mindful not to overwhelm the actors delivery. Additionally, they may also consider adopting a shorter word or description to encourage a better process for understanding the on-stage antics, or even, substituting just one word to reflect that moment. This was particularly pertinent at times such as the pigeons with the Nazi insignia on their bottoms or the naked, moving statue.
Jonathan explained, “For this show, I thought for a long time about the life-sized statue in Roger’s apartment. The set designer had certainly gone for the visual joke with his ample, and very detailed appendage, which of course gets an instant gasp of surprise and shock from a sighted audience. I settled on the word appendage after a lot of consideration of other words but didn’t want it to sound too lewd of offensive, simple eye-catching (ear?) and as titillating as intended.”
The elaborate costumes produce gasps of delight from a sighted audience and, by allowing the visually-impaired to witness them during the touch tour before the show, they too can join in the fun when reminded of the costumes on their headsets. This also saves the cast from being greeted with a row of blank looks and silence.
Jonathan stated that the first half of the show, which he wrote, took over 30 hours to create. This included a first viewing where he and Bex, sat and wrote endless notes about the set, the costumes and the characters. It took him about ten hours at home with a video recording just to write his half of the AD script.
Here he also performs a second dry run-through, checking on timings and repetition of words. The night before Eye Matter arrives they deliver a final dry-run at the theatre.Timing is vital for an effective audio description and often they discover the dialogue has sped up closing the gaps designated for their description. In some cases, the scenes may have changed or sets altered slightly from their original viewing. All this work is supplemental to supporting the on-stage touch tour and travel time.
Another important consideration is to pay careful attention to the directors intention and choices, along with the lighting and what it adds to the show, “in order that we do justice to the show itself and, hopefully, by blending our language to suit the dialogue”.Like many good audio describers, Jonathan and Bex strive to become an additional character voice offering visual assistance but without standing out like a sore thumb!
A huge thanks to Jonathan and Bex for all their care which makes our experience so fantastic at these shows. Another enormous thanks to the cast who kindly came out to say hello and all the fabulous staff at the theatre.