Stranger Things: The First Shadow with Audio Description (AD)

Last Sunday I went to see Stranger Things: The First Shadow, at the Phoenix theatre in London. If you like the Stranger Things Netflix series, you'll love the play - and I absolutely did! What really made my day was that it was a performance with live Audio Description (AD) and a touch tour beforehand.

Before the world turned upside down

Hawkins, 1959: a regular town with regular worries. Young Jim Hopper’s car won’t start, Bob Newby’s sister won’t take his radio show seriously and Joyce Maldonado just wants to graduate and get the hell out of town. When new student Henry Creel arrives, his family finds that a fresh start isn’t so easy… and the shadows of the past have a very long reach.

Written by Kate Trefry, and based on an original story by the Duffer Brothers and Jack Thorne, Stranger Things: The First Shadow is directed by Stephen Daldry and produced by Sonia Friedman.

The play premiered at the Phoenix theatre on 14 December 2023, and it was announced earlier this month that the play will transfer to Broadway in March 2025, so whether you live in London or New York, I highly recommend getting yourself to see it before the final season of Stranger Things is released next year!

Touch tour

As the name suggests, a touch tour is an opportunity for blind and low vision theatre goers to explore the set and costumes by touch, before the play begins.

In this case it took about 30 minutes, and given that set designer Miriam Buether has wrung every last ounce of possibility out of the revolving stage at the Phoenix theatre, I was profoundly glad of the opportunity.

If you haven't encountered one before, a revolving stage consists of two or more concentric circles, each of which can be raised or lowered as well as revolved. At the Phoenix there is an outer ring that takes up most of the available space on the stage, an inner ring, and then a circular platform in the centre that is perhaps a meter or so across.

As the stage moves and revolves, one scene transitions fluidly into another, so the action never stops. Even with AD, it would have been incredibly hard to understand what was happening on stage, but the touch tour was an opportunity to get amongst the different parts of the set and to understand how it worked.

The action in Stranger Things: The First Shadow moves from the room where Bob Newby broadcasts his home radio show, to a school gymnasium (complete with its own stage), a police station, locker room, local cafeteria, a church, the Creel house, and of course into the Upside Down.

The tour was conducted by Miranda and Willie, two AD specialists from Vocaleyes who later provided the live AD for the performance itself. They took us onto the stage and gave us an initial description of the set, then introduced us to Chris Buckley, the actor who plays Bob Newby. Chris told us all about Bob Newby's home radio broadcast station, complete with 50s era knobs and dials, an "On Air" sign fashioned out of a cornflake packet and a red light bulb, plus a xylophone, kazoo, and slide whistle for those all-important sound effects.

We were then introduced to Patrick Vaill, who plays Doctor Brenner. Patrick talked about playing a younger and slightly angrier version of the character played by Mathew Modine in the Netflix series, and about transforming himself into the suit wearing Doctor Brenner with short dark hair (Patrick Vaill has light coloured chin length hair and was casually dressed at the time).

We were then encouraged to explore the set for ourselves. It was extraordinary to be able to reach over the waist high wooden rail into the bullpen of the police station and pat a Bakelite telephone, to step into the laboratory and sit on a hard metal chair in the centre of the harsh white space, to discover that when the row of lockers revolved out of sight the sinks and taps on their other side swivelled into view to become a bathroom, to feel the beer taps on the bar of the cafeteria, and so much more besides. All the while Chris Buckley, Patrick Vaill, the AD specialists, and several members of the crew were happy to chat and answer questions.

Louis McCartney, the actor who plays Henry Creel, then joined the tour. Louis explained that although he's in his early 20s, he has the build and appearance of a much younger person, enabling him to play an early teenage Henry Creel. Louis also described some of the scenes in which Henry Creel experiences some of the scarier moments in the play.

There was just time to feel some of the costumes that would be worn during the play, including a 1950s style "hazmat" suit, an evening gown covered in sequins, a showgirl outfit with tail feathers, and the head and clawed feet of a Demogorgon!

The tour wrapped up with a reminder to be in our seats 15 minutes before curtain-up if we wanted to listen to some audio notes before the play got underway.

Audio notes

The AD headset was like a stethoscope, with a large bud that fitted into each ear connected by two slightly rubbery tubes, that formed a Y-shape down to a receiver with a large volume dial in its centre. Settled into our seats in row D of the stalls, I plugged myself in and began to listen to the audio notes.

The notes consisted of a brief description of the set, presumably because not everyone chooses to take the touch tour, then gave a detailed visual description of each of the characters. Generally this included a description of their costume, or at least the first outfit they appeared in, a visual description of the character including their hair, skin tone, and general style, plus notes on their physical characteristics - one is described as typically carrying books or a clipboard for example.

Audio Description

Unlike the AD for movies and TV series, where each line is carefully curated to fit neatly into the gaps between the original dialogue and sound effects, live AD has to cope with the uncertainty of a live theatre performance. Even with this exceptionally polished and slick performance of Stranger Things: The First Shadow, the exact pace cannot be guaranteed and so the gaps between one actor speaking their lines and the next can vary from one performance to another. The upshot is that occasionally the AD overlapped with the dialogue, but it really didn't bother me in the slightest - perhaps like other blind people I've become adept at processing multiple audio streams at once, or perhaps I was just engrossed in the story!

Stranger Things: The First Shadow is loud. Actually, it's louder than that. It's extravagantly, preposterously, stupendously loud - which means you need to be ready to adjust the AD volume at the slightest notice. Miranda and Willie warned us about this beforehand and it was just as well.

The AD itself was wonderful. I mentioned before that thanks to the revolving stage, one scene transitions to the next almost without pause. Willie in Act 1 and Miranda in Act 2 kept pace throughout, describing each new set as it came into view, each special effect as it happened (and there were lots), and as much of the stagecraft as they could fit in between the often rapid fire dialogue.

Performance

Every member of the cast was superb. Particular mention goes to Isabella Pappas as Joyce Maldonado, for sounding uncannily like Winona Ryder's portrayal of the character in the Netflix series. Oscar Lloyd perfectly captured the mannerisms of David Harbour's James Hopper Jnr. in the Netflix series, and also has the ability to toss out a one-liner with sublime comic timing. Lauren Ward, who played Virginia Creel, had me spiralling between sympathy and outrage in equal measure, Chris Buckley was delightfully endearing as Bob Newby, and Patrick Vaill and Louis McCartney positively sparked off each other in every scene they shared.

But what about the play?

Well, I'm not going to spoil the surprise.

But I promise you that from the moment the curtain rises, Stranger Things: The First Shadow will get hold of you, pull you in, and then it will turn you Upside Down!