Blind actors in Belfast are building a play entirely from sound

A workshop in Belfast is writing a play that the audience will hear and not see. The BBC reported on November 11, 2026, that Sightless Cinema, working with the Royal National Institute of Blind People and Queen's University, is spending two years with blind and partially sighted performers. The piece they are building uses gravel, leaves, a wind machine, and a miniature door so a story can land without a picture. The performance is planned for 2028 in the Sonic Lab at Queen's, with the audience in blindfolds.

Helen Kennedy, who is playing a bride named Nuala, said mainstream amateur clubs have turned her away because they worry she will fall off a stage. Jim Masterson, from Belfast, said he had not acted since secondary school and is now doing it without sight. Dorothy Leeman said she had not expected to improvise, and that she would not have missed it. Dawn Hopper said so much of the arts is visual that people with sight loss get left out, and that the workshop is a way back in. Ciarán Taylor, who runs the sessions, said the point is blind and sighted people making something together. The news is this workshop and the 2028 date. It is not a finished show.