Access & Inclusion

Lichfield Garrick has three large fully accessible toilets, one in our Café Bar, one beside Door B, and one at the back of our Lounge Bar. We have cubicle toilets near the Box Office (ladies & gentlemen, down a few steps or via the lift), Café Bar (ladies & gentlemen), Lounge Bar (ladies) and Circle Bar (gentlemen). 

If you require urgent access to the toilet because of an impairment/disability, you can make this known to staff at any time and they will ensure that you are quickly pointed toward the nearest toilet with discretion and dignity. 

Assistance Dogs are permitted in the theatre building - please alert the Box Office at the time of booking or drop us an email so we can make a note on your order.

If you are booking a seat in the Main Auditorium, we politely request that you book a seat in a box or the end of a row. If you are booking a seat in the Studio/Cinema, we politely request that you book a seat on Row A as close to the end of the row as possible.

This is to keep the dog as separate as possible from other patrons who may suffer from allergies. Thank you for your cooperation.

We offer Babes in Arms tickets on certain family performances, which allows you to bring an infant under 18 months old (at the time of the performance, not the time of booking) into a show where they will be on the lap of a parent/guardian and will not be charged for their own seat. This will be charged at a nominal fee of £3. We recommend booking tickets on the end of a row (or as close as possible) so if you need to leave, then your exit will cause minimal disturbance to patrons around you. It is your responsibility to make sure that your infant doesn’t disturb other visitors to the venue and you may be asked to step outside of the auditorium if members of staff feel it is necessary to request this of you.

Babes in Arms tickets are bookable in two ways. These can be retrospectively added to your order by calling the Box Office (who can also answer any questions you may have about our protocol) or via the website as a specific ticket type. Once you have selected your seats on the seating plan and clicked to continue, a drop-down menu will appear where you will need to change the ticket type to factor in how many Babes in Arms you will need. Please note that you only need to change the amount of tickets to Standard inc. Babes in Arms per infant you are bringing. If you have any questions, please email us on garrick@lichfieldgarrick.com.

Some shows offer British Sign Language (BSL) Performances or Captioned Performances - this will be stated at the time of booking. We hope to offer more of these in the future.

Our BSL Performances have a British Sign Language Interpreter on the side stage.

Our Captioned Performances have subtitles projected onto a screen either beside or above the stage, show dependent.

You can find out more about our access scheme with Nimbus here.

We are happy to show you parts of the venue before your visit, such as a seat you are considering booking or what our café/bar spaces are like. We recommend giving us a call ahead of time or dropping us an email on garrick@lichfieldgarrick.com to make sure that a member of the team is available at a time that suits you.

Touch Tours enable you to explore and familiarise yourself with the stage, props & costumes prior to attending a performance. We are hoping to offer this on more performances, so please enquire via email if this is something you’d be interested in. These will only be available on the day of the performance.

We cannot guarantee that there will be the time/capacity to offer this as many of our shows come from visiting companies, so please get in touch and we will contact the company for you.

Booster Seats

Booster seats are available and can be collected from the Box Office (available on a first come, first serve basis).

Ear Defenders

Ear defenders are available and can be collected from the Box Office (available on a first come, first serve basis).

Our Box Office is open for in-person or telephone bookings/enquires:

MONDAY - SATURDAY
10am - 5pm

The Box Office is accessible through the main doors to the venue, located on Wade Street. It is directly to the left of the automatic doors, which can be opened by pressing the buttons, located on the front of the barriers, that open the doors outwards towards the street. Access to the Box Office is step-free if this entranceway is used, or is accessible by lift if you enter through the Café Bar.

There are two desk positions within the Box Office that are approximately 3.5m to the left of the entranceway. The first position can be found through a hatch window, which sits 86cm from the ground. The hatch is 58cm wide.

The second position is on the main desk and sits 102cm from the ground. There is also a low section of the counter (85cm high) beside it.

There are visuals of the seating plans for both our performance spaces with numbered dots that denote each individual seat.

We also offer Familiarisation Visits.

The lift operates on six levels, from LG (lower ground) to level 4 (the circle).

• 4 – Circle, Doors D & E, Gents Toilets
• 3 – Lounge Bar, Ladies toilets, Accessible toilets
• 2 – Rear Stalls, Doors B & C
• 1 – Cafe Bar, Door A, Studio & Cinema entrance, Toilets (ladies, gents, accessible, baby-changing facilities)
• G – Main entrance, Box Office
• LG – Toilets (ladies & gents)

Its maximum weight is 630kg and has a maximum person hold of eight people.

The doorways to the lift are 81cm wide and 2m high.

To call the lift, please press the button once.

The lift will complete any pre-requested journeys before arriving at your floor. This may take some time and we thank you for your patience. Please speak to a member of staff if you have any concerns or require assistance.

Please do not repeatedly press the button as this may cause further delays.

Relaxed performances at Lichfield Garrick Theatre have an adapted environment for anyone who would benefit from a more relaxed and supportive atmosphere than a standard show.

What changes are made?

Noise and movement

The attitude to noise and movement is relaxed, and we ask everyone who attends to be supportive of this. Audience members can leave and re-enter the auditorium as required.

Show Experience

We make slight changes to sound and lighting if necessary, and we never have a full black-out in the auditorium. Pyrotechnics and loud or sudden bangs are removed. Low fog (smoke effect) is not used, but there is a little haze used to help with lighting effects.

Start and end times may be slightly delayed due to the nature of the show.

The story is still presented in its entirety, and no scenes or songs are omitted.

Quiet Area

For anyone who needs to leave the show, we have a Quiet Space outside the auditorium (the location of this may vary show to show, please see your pre-show email, or ask a member of staff) which can be used throughout the show. This is not a space where you are expected to remain quiet, but rather a space away from the rest of the venue that you can use at your discretion if you are finding the show environment too overwhelming.

You can return to the show when you are ready and are welcome to leave and return whenever you like. This area will be signposted, and if you would like to view it before the show then just ask a member of staff when you arrive.

Staffing

All staff on duty are there to help and support the audience however they can. They are unable to provide personal care but can help with any questions and help you find your way around the building.

Around the Building

Every door will have clear and simple signage to help you find your way to the auditorium, café bar, toilets and box office.

Your Visit

There are two entrances to Lichfield Garrick. You can enter via Box Office or the Café Bar.

The Café Bar and Lounge Bar sell refreshments before the show begins.

There are toilets in the Café Bar, Lounge Bar, and the Box Office. Wheelchair accessible toilets are in the Café Bar, as well as located towards the back of the Lounge Bar, through the doorway at the top right-hand corner. These toilets will be signposted. There is both a standard lift you can use to access all floors, and a wheelchair accessible stair lift to enable travel to the bar from the rear stalls area.

The doors to the auditorium will open at about half an hour before the beginning of the performance. There can sometimes be a short delay if the actors and backstage crew are not quite ready.

Our Front of House staff wear a uniform and a name badge. Their uniform is a black shirt with pink buttons and inside collar, and a pink name badge on their chest.

If you find yourself in need of the duty manager for any reason, they will be wearing their own clothes but will also be wearing a name badge and carrying keys and a radio. If you cannot find them, please ask a member of staff and they will radio them for you.

Most shows will contain an interval of twenty minutes. The bars will be open for you to purchase further refreshments, and the toilets on all levels will also be open.

Lichfield Garrick has seating on all levels of the theatre. We endeavour to open the doors to the auditorium half an hour before the start time of each performance (there will be times when this isn’t possible, but staff on the evening can give you an update). 

If you are attending a VIP event or a workshop and you have concerns about standing/queueing during these events, please email garrick@lichfieldgarrick.com  

If you wish to pre-order your refreshments to skip the bar queues, click here

There are up to four spaces for wheelchairs in the Main Auditorium at the rear of the stalls and four wheelchairs in our Studio. These can be booked online if you have identified to us already that you are a wheelchair user or are booking on behalf of a wheelchair user. Companion seats are held alongside these.

Seats that are available to book are brightly coloured, typically pink, whereas seats that are sold/locked will appear grey. Wheelchair positions are denoted by the universal wheelchair symbol and companion seats are denoted by stars. Seats with an i icon denote step-free access. In rows A-D, this is also lift-free access. In row O, these are accessible via the lift.

Wheelchair access is available at the Garrick at both entrances to the theatre. These are either at the Cafe Bar entrance on Castle Dyke, or the Box Office entrance on Wade Street. All levels within the venue are accessible by lift.