Tiny Fragments of Beautiful Light came to the Theatre @ 41 for one night only Tuesday evening and was unlike any piece of theatre I have seen before.
Upon entering, we discovered a pair of silent disco headphones waiting for us on our seats, each pair had three different settings: “full sound design” which included everything as normal; partial sound design which muted any high pitched noises for a “mellow experience” and finally a “relaxed sound design”. We were invited to wear the headphones if we desired, however it wasn’t essential to the performance, all of the sound effects and music were played through the speakers as usual. I tried all three different settings throughout the performance and removed the headphones completely at points, to get a sense of how they affected the overall piece. I found that wearing the headphones gave it a more intimate feel, I surprisingly was much more invested in the performance when wearing them, it made me forget that I was surrounded by lots of other people as it cut out any distractions.
The show was designed with a neurodivergent audience in mind, hence the headphones. We were also provided with a leaflet with a “moment map” of the more intense parts of the show, for example when a character screams or cries, any loud unexpected noises were marked too. As someone who is not autistic, it is hard to comment on whether these features were beneficial or not, however it seems that the team behind it did an excellent job and considered all of the potential needs of a neurodivergent audience.
Tiny Fragments of Beautiful Light is an Alphabetti Theatre production, a production house theatre based in Newcastle. The company prides itself on accessible theatre, often running ‘Pay What You Feel’ schemes for their shows and investing to ensure people of all abilities have equal access to the theatre, with almost a third of their programme filled with captioned or audio described performances.
The performance itself followed a young autistic woman through her life, from school to marriage, as she experiences and overcomes new challenges. The protagonist, Elsa, goes on a journey of self-discovery, trying to understand why other people's normal daily experiences are so different to her own. We witness her getting into fights at school, having her first crush, her first kiss, going to university, getting her first job and falling in love, the whole time unaware of her autism. Elsa describes her feelings as an octopus in her head who takes over and seems to appear when she is feeling anxious which was paired with clever sound effects and lighting animations to make the audience understand how she was feeling. There were only three actors, the lead who played the protagonist, and two others who took on multiple roles but for the majority of the play acted as her mother and her love interest. At times their acting was slightly cringeworthy, but on the whole the cast was strong and worked together well, they gave a very moving performance.
Overall, Tiny Fragments of Beautiful Light was a touching performance that visualised the thoughts and feelings of a young autistic woman in a clever and unique way, as well as exploring the effects it had on her family and loved ones. If the show is touring near you, I would definitely recommend giving it a watch, if nothing else for their style and interesting approach to making theatre accessible for all.
