Sunday Morning At The Centre Of The World

We went to the Southwark Playhouse see Louis de Bernieres' "Sunday Morning At The Centre Of The World", primarily as it is based in Earlsfield and so we have a local connection. It's billed as a 'play for voices' and you have the option of listening to the play wearing a blindfold, which both Paul and I opted to do.  

We were lead into the auditorium by a guide so that we would not see the setting at all and spent a very interesting hour listening to the voices and smelling. Yes, smelling: they use an awful lot of smells in the production and I wondered if they were as powerful for those who could see the performance. The temptation to peak is there at first but does go away after a while.

I don't want to spoil the production for anybody who may go and see it but I left saying 'wow' quite a lot. Clearly, I won't understand how those who chose to view the performance felt but play really does paint pictures in your mind when you can't see anything. Initially, I imagined that the experience would be like a radio play but it's very different as you can smell and feel things (there's a lot of air movement for example) and I found my head was following sounds that were not always the main narration.

I would encourage you to watch experience it with the blindfold. Don't imagine that you could close your eyes and hear the play in the same way. You won't and you'll be pleased with the power of your own imagination.