Overview

I love this theatre and the fact that the staff are so disability aware and inclusive. I arrived in my wheelchair with my assistance dog and was faced with a sea of people milling about in the foyer. A member of staff came over and got my ticket for me, and asked if I would like assistance to get through the crowd. I get really anxious in busy areas, and accepted her offer of help. She walked in front of me, politely asking people to step back to allow room for an assistance dog to pass, and when random people started patting my dog she quickly explained that they should not touch working dogs. I was shown to the lift and advised she would take the stairs and meet me at the top. We were then shown to our seat and I was asked if I would like to remain in my chair or transfer to a seat, and I opted to stay in my chair. I was provided with ample space for my assistance dog to be next to me and we enjoyed the show.

Transport & Parking

There is a large car park adjacent to the theatre with a number of accessible parking spaces. I would advise arriving early as this can fill up quite quickly.

Access

The building has step free access with automatic doors at the entrance. There is a standard accessible toilet and a lift. The theatre can be very accommodating in ensuring you are provided with a suitable seating area. On this occasion I was seated upstairs with plenty of room for my wheelchair and assistance dog, and on previous occasions we have been allocated one of the boxes to ourselves which was ideal. There is less room in the designated disabled seating area that is shown on the seating plan of the theatre, but if you need more room let staff know and they will do there best to accommodate you. I use a self propelled wheelchair and did find it extremely difficult to self propel on the upper levels to reach the toilet due to the thickness of the carpet on the floor. In the end I took the lift and used the downstairs loo which was easier for me.

Toilets

The wheelchair accessible loos had just enough room to manoeuvre my self-propelled wheelchair, but powerchair users may need to reverse out depending on the size of their chair. Grab rails were provided. Acceptable levels of cleanliness, but not great, probably due to it being really busy by all users.

Staff

I found the staff very friendly, helpful, switched on and respectful. They made my visit really enjoyable, especially getting through the crowds of people to get to my seat which I would have found overwhelming on my own. The staff came back at the interval to offer assistance and ask if they could help in any way with getting a drink etc.

Anything else you wish to tell us?

I have visited a few times now and always found the staff to be brilliant. I would definitely recommend and will visit again in the future.