Yellow pants, pink blouses and dresses for cheerleaders with the high school logo on them. All can be seen on the stage of the Atlas Theater in Emmen during the performance The Prom. But not for Maarten Baan Hofman from Emmen. He sits in the hall, but is almost blind. He can hear everything and what he cannot see he hears through an interpreter.
That’s Angelique van Lieshout from the Come see it foundation. Throughout the country, she and her colleagues attend performances to interpret for the blind and visually impaired. “That really has enormous added value. It’s a lot that you don’t see. And you don’t know what you’re missing,” explains Baan Hofman prior to the performance.
A meet and feel has been arranged for him in advance. He gets an explanation about the set and the costumes and he can also touch the costumes. “I hope I will remember all that later during the performance.” Van Lieshout meanwhile tells which piece of clothing he has in his hands and which character it belongs to.
Then Baan Hofman enters the room with his wife and guide dog for the blind. The actors introduce themselves to him and already speak their first text of the performance. This makes it easier for the blind and visually impaired to recognize the voices during the performance.
Just before the curtains open, the interpreter leaves for a separate room where she has a microphone. While watching the performance, she describes what is happening on stage. The blind and visually impaired can listen in with her via earphones or headphones.
“I try to blend,” van Lieshout explains. Of course she can’t talk right through the actors. “In the pause of the music, when I take a breath, I try to tell things quickly. Someone coming up from the left, a skirt that flutters nicely or a pirouette that is being made.”
Maarten Baan Hofman is now enjoying the performance in the auditorium. Although it is also hard work for him. “You have to listen to the performance and to the interpreter. At the end of the play I have sweat running down my back. It is top sport, especially if you are doing this for the first time.”
The Emmenaar has been to a performance in this way a number of times in recent years. Saturday evening for the first time in his own city in the Atlas theater. “I think that’s fantastic, so close to home. I’m really going to do that more often,” he says afterwards. “I really enjoy this and the interpreter gives me a lot more insight. And because I have heard those voices in advance, I recognize them more easily. Yes, I love it.”