It’s really difficult to find good presents for Quinns so when I saw an advert for ‘Horrible Histories – the Concert’ in Glasgow I knew what to get him for Christmas. He loves the tv programme and had really enjoyed previous pantomime trips so I hoped he would enjoy the full theatre experience. I did have a slight hesitation in how he might cope as he struggles with loud noises, but it seemed worth the risk.

These days it seems straighforward to buy tickets for shows. A few clicks on the website and your seats are chosen, payment is made and your tickets magically appear.

Sadly, that was not my experience trying to buy our tickets to include a wheelchair space for Quinns.

I followed the link for the show and discovered the tickets were being sold by ATG tickets. I couldn’t see any wheelchair spaces available on the plan. Having never been in this particular theatre with Quinns I had absolutely no idea of the layout. It seemed easier to speak to someone with knowledge of the theatre. I phoned the contact number, but a recorded message directed me to the ATG website then hung up. I tried the contact form on the ATG website but four months later I am still awaiting a response. There was no way to speak directly to the Theatre.

After much digging on the ATG website I discovered I would need an Access Card which covered all sorts of access requirements. I aborted my attempts to get this card when it asked for details of Quinns’ diagnosis. I had no idea why this was relevant simply to book a wheelchair space. I reached out for help and reassurance from a friend.

Following consultation, I spent considerable time weighing up whether all the effort of filling out a multi-page form with some highly personal and emotive information was worth it. I kept in my head how excited Quinns would be to see his favourite characters from TV and potentially there would be other shows we would want to take him to in future. In theory I only have to go through this process once as the Access Card will apply for future bookings.

Keep in mind, at this point, I still didn’t know whether there were actually any wheelchair tickets available for the performance!

I eventually got through the form giving as little information as possible. A large part of it was about toilet requirements so I made the point he needs a Changing Places toilet even although I knew this was not available. On my second attempt it still took me nearly an hour to complete the whole form! Towards the end of the process, I was constantly asked if I wanted to buy a physical Access Card even although the forms I had completed for the digital version should be sufficient.

I finally reached the point of booking tickets and it appeared that a wheelchair space was available. Our tickets included ‘Wheelchair’ and ‘Essential’ Companion and we were all in the same row. Hooray!

Quinns was delighted when he got the tickets on Christmas morning and we all had something to look forward to in March.

So, with much excitement a couple of weeks ago we caught the train to Glasgow for the show. I planned to arrive early because I had a feeling it wasn’t going to go well. And sure enough when we got to our seats I had booked a wheelchair transfer seat not a wheelchair space. I nearly cried!

Thankfully the staff in the theatre sorted it for us immediately. Without hesitation they checked whether the wheelchair space was available. I am so grateful that it was! Sadly, we weren’t all together on the same row, but dad and Big Sister were in seats in front which worked well for us. The speed with which it was sorted made me think this may be a regular occurrence.

At the end of the performance we spoke to the Manager of the theatre so hopefully we could both learn from what had gone wrong and to thank the staff for being so helpful. I couldn’t help but be disappointed when he confirmed there is no way to speak directly to the theatre or anyone else to avoid such issues.

We all thoroughly enjoyed the performance so all the heartache of filling out forms was worth it. Before the performance Quinns was fascinated by the ceiling and enjoyed watching audience members arrive. He then coped well with the noise of the music, singing and audience participation. I would definitely take him to other shows.

But would I book a show at that theatre again through ATG tickets?  For the right show, now that we’ve done it once and got some more information about the layout, I might be willing to attempt it. But I do have some serious reservations following our recent experience. What if the same thing happened again and the wheelchair space wasn’t available despite all the information I provided?

I have, however, booked seats at a theatre in Perth for the four of us. It took one email and one phone conversation to have the correct four tickets. I’ll keep you posted on how it turns out but so far so good!