Eden Court Theatre and Cinema

Eden Court is a large arts venue with two theatres, two cinema screens, galleries and multipurpose studios. (Fun, if nerdy, fact... the Empire theatre and La Scala/Playhouse cinemas are named for other, now long-gone, venues in the city which is a nice touch). My partner and I visited to see The High Life Musical in the Empire Theatre so this review is specific to that venue. The show itself was fabulous and definitely recommended if it tours again. We booked a wheelchair space and companion seat (complementary with the Highland Council "Agus Aon" (Plus One) card) by telephone as you cannot do this online. There are wheelchair spaces in the stalls and upper Circles, however the other seats there are of the tip-up variety. We were in Box 14 which is on the same level as the rear stalls, had a great view and is accessed from level 1. The seats in our box were movable (and had been set up by staff prior to our arrival to accommodate the wheelchair) as they are in other boxes, but only a few of these have step-free access. The concourse and Café Bar are open and spacious, as are most areas, with plenty of room to manoeuvre through and around. There is a large lift to all of the main levels and I had no problems in my manual wheelchair. If I had one problem it was that I found myself rather invisible to a disappointing proportion of the clientele, pushing and shoving and queue jumping but I guess that's a societal issue and should in absolutely no way reflect on the wonderful staff who were all friendly and extremely helpful. Overall, though, we had a great time and the whole complex is very accessible.

I had only been to one event at Eden Court since the Pandemic due to shielding and it was in a marquee so I was really looking forward to an indoor performance but also a bit apprehensive at the same time. I felt that the entrance has a subtly different feeling to it; it had a real buzz and had the reception area had some new events screens to watch while people waited there. The theatre is still just as accessible as before, in fact, I felt that it was easier to get inside the theatre and to my space. I also found an accessible programme at Reception listing all the embedded access performances too so I was really impressed. The play (James IV, Queen of the Fight) was sensational as were all the actors and I would definitely recommend it if anyone else can still catch it on its tour. Rona Munro’s script really shone out as the star for me though and I can still remember certain lines from it, so it must have been good! I particularly loved the last scene which really emphasised one of the central messages of the play; our history is complicated and things haven’t changed for people of colour as much as we would like to hope they have.

We attended this fantastic event as part of a belated birthday celebration; it was part of the 'Under Canvas' summer festival of events at Eden Court Theatre and Cinema and the event that we attended was a 'global music D.J.' set, held in a marquee adjacent to the theatre. This was the first live music event I've attended since Lockdown began and I can't stress how well worth the wait it was. I was feeling nervous about mixing with people at an event like this but the Covid safe system that the staff employed, along with being in a tent and having an open air dance area, made me feel as reassured as I could have been at a public event. Capacity was limited and distancing was maintained around tables but this didn't affect the atmosphere at all and actually made it better for our party. It was just the perfect balance with music with universal appeal which crossed all age barriers. We had delicious pizza and drinks and the table service was really good too.