Of Kith And Kin - Review

Hi today I have something exciting. I went to see a show. A play. My first ever play. I admit I did think when are they going to break into song! I went with my mum and we met up with our friend Jean who we met through the CVI Society. We went to the bush theatre to see the play running there, until the 25th November if you want to go watch it, called Kith And Kin. We were lucky enough to be invited by Jean and her son, Chris, who is the playwright of the show. We were lucky enough to meet him before the show and have a chat. It was really interesting as before being a play writer, Chris was a social worker. Bit of a career change. But if you look at the shows he has wrote, you can see where elements of his carer as a social worker and his experiences with it have influenced his writing. As they say, write about what you know.

Of Kith and Kin is Chris's 3rd play, is 2hours long with a 20 minute interval. It follow a couple, Daniel and Oliver as they are throwing a baby shower, for their surrogate Priya. We see their friendship, they're best friends with Priya. Priya has been a surrogate before and has her own son. Everything is going well until an unxepected arrival at the front door arrives. Daniel's mum and what follows is families disagreeing and obivious underlying problems. A fight breaks out between the couple and Daniel assaults Oliver with his mum goading him. Priya standing in the corner in horror as to what is unfolding. When suddenly Priya goes into labour. I don't want to spoil the play so thats all I'm going to say because then we follow them after the fallout of what happened at the baby shower.

It was in a stage that was almost like a round stage. You had a square stage and a part of the audience each side except upstage. It was really cool and I found I liked the staging. It really showed if you were a good actor because there was no where to hide. There was no off switch. You had to really be in the moment and showing on your face. My mum said to me about how many lines they all had. And its true because the main 3, the actors who played Priya, Oliver and Daniel were onstage for pretty much every scene.

The actors in the show were very good, they really suited the characters and they really seemed to throw themselves into the characters. I also like the use of perhaps what would be considered older actors. Even though they aren't that old, you normally see fresh out of drama school, under 25's so it was nice to see the talent that is out there that isn't necessarily the stereotypical actor. It was a very small cast, 5 actors and one of the actress's who intially played Lydia, Daniel's mum, was double cast as another character. I won't say what the character is because it kind of gives a spoiler to the plot.

The lighting and the staging of the show was really cool. They used props to make it look like a room and to help reinforce where they were. The lighting was clever and how they used a curtain to move the story along with sound and visuals without needing a full scene. To progress the story through a scene transition was cool. Also with the way the audience was set up it almost felt as if you were just watching their lives, bit like say if you were watching Eastenders.

Overall I really enjoyed it and would go see another play. Definitely would go see another of Chris's work. I have found I much prefer the contemporary pieces, I have yet to see Shakespeare piece. I am glad I went to see this as my first play then something quite heavy as Shakespeare.

My mum and came out having quite enjoyed the show, the humour was good I found I felt the seats move because my mum was laughing. There is strong language, as word of warning but it didn't bother me. I really enjoyed it and really liked the bush theatre. I would definitely go there again.

If you want to go watch Kith and Kin, its on at the bush theatre until the 25th November, tickets start at £10. And again big thank you to Jean and Chris for inviting us!

Thanks for reading,
until next time
Sophie x

CVI Society Convention 2017

So its that time of year again. The CVI Society Convention 2017. This year my mum and I were joined by my brother and we drove because the train was double what it would cost in petrol and parking was free. This year it was in Bristol in the Futures Inn hotel and conference centre. We were also staying for longer, we got to the hotel the day before the convention and we went home the day after the convention which I enjoyed because last year we didnt really know anyone apart from Janet and it seemed like we were just getting into the swing of it by the time we went home. This year like last year we had dinner with everyone the night before. We also had dinner with everybody after the convention as well. I did end up getting quite anxious and panicky though but after I chilled out I was fine.

So this year I was made an ambassador of the cvi society along with Art, who also presented a speech, this year and last year, about his life with CVI who is from Ireland. We are both young ambassadors for the cvi society. What I really enjoyed about the CVi society is meeting people like me, like this year I met HJ and her mum Maia and her dad Andy. She was really nice and shared my feeling of happiness to meet people like her.
Its weird because we're technically not part of the visual impairment world completely. Meeting more parents and professionals was lovely because, by imparting the struggles and things we've experienced and I guess it gives people a kind of idea of what kind of future their children could have, hopefully it provides them with ways to help them and to kind of hope and help them encourage their children with their hopes and dreams. Its hard to explain but that their is hope. I guess. Its weird. I had people come up to me and they said 'oh you'll be in demand' my mum was the one most people wanted to speak to. She was told what an amazing person she is. Of course I agree, she's my mum.

I met some really nice people, I'll be honest I'm not very good with names and faces so I can't remember everybody's names. It was really nice to put faces to names of people that you see on the forum and talk to.

I was on first again after the introductions, I had 15 minutes. I did come off thinking I had over ran but when I asked my mum, she said I didnt. I even met someone who's watched my videos besides my mum and Janet! She was really lovely and we had a long chat because she spoke about a project she's currently working on, stripping back the film industry in terms of the layers added to shows and filmas i.e special effects, sound, music. It can be quite disorientating for lots of people never mind people with sensory issues. It was a really interesting project. As I feel that at times, when its for example a really dark scene. I just want someone to lighten it up past what my screen can do. For example I love stranger things and it often has scenes outside at night and its really dark so I have my mac's screen brightness on full. But I need it even brighter. Also speaking of shows, I managed to put some recommendations out there. That people should watch orphan black, heathers both the movie and musical. Oh and Deaf West Spring Awakening. Some people I spoke to this year had even heard of them which I love even more! Thats when I really geek out and talk at a million miles a minute about how much I love them. I get like that, with things I love, like cats.

We had lots of different speakers, from professor Gordon Dutton and Richard Bowman to a lovely man who had come with his wife and son who had cvi and spoke of his experience as a father of having a child with cvi.

Also I don't know if you know this but I love shopping, and that literally over the road from the hotel was Cabot circus. A big shopping centre. So I did do some shopping. I think I was quite tame though for me.

I think my speech went well, I had people coming up to me and telling me it was really good and asking me how the whole acting thing is going. I was even asked if I would do a short Q&A type interview as a father who came to the convention is writing a book about seeing. So I was asked questions like, what I wish to see, the worst thing I've seen etc. So I could be in a book. If I am I will let people know.

Overall I had a really lovely time and cannot wait for the next convention. Got to get my thinking cap on otherwise I won't have a clue by the time it comes around. This year there was a theme of 'The new normal, what is normal?' And I found it made it easier to write the speech. I actually had a bit of writers block for this speech as I found I struggled to know what to say in response to the last speech I did. I felt I had said a lot and talked about myself and living with a visual impairment. I didnt want to repeat myself. I didnt want to copy the speech.

I am doing a blog on the convention for the cvi society website. So go read that.

So thank you for reading. I am going to Hamilton in December so I will probably write about it as I'm going on opening preview night. So the blog should be back up and running! Also thank you to the CVI Society again for everything they do, the CVI Society are a small charity and run by volunteers so if your thinking of fundraising for a charity, thing about the CVI Society. Because it would be amazing and the money would go directly to them and help them do their work and support more people. And spread the message of CVI

Thanks for reading,
until next time
Sophie