Relaxed Performance in Canada

Interest in curating accessible experiences is growing among many in the Canadian arts scene. The question of what this means has begun to drive conversations about how this might be accomplished, concretely: What is an accessible arts experience? How does it look different in different segments of the arts landscape? What are the policy implications of accessibility? How does accessibility in the arts relate to larger debates about accessibility in disability studies? What is access, and what is inclusion?

One key movement in the accessible arts landscape is Relaxed Performance. Relaxed Performance (RP) has been described as “the opposite of the quiet car of a train” (British Council, nd): it refers to the invitation for people to be themselves, including their movement and their vocalizations, in the theatre space. RP includes technical modifications, such as half-dimmed (rather than blackout) theatre lights, warnings about and/or reductions in loud noises and pyrotechnics, the ability to move freely and in and out of the space, a space outside of the main theatre with simultaneous or simulcast video (a “chill space”), and more. Increasingly, Canadian theatres are joining this movement, which began to take root in the UK in the 1990s.