The Royal Court Theatre Takes Part in Captioning Awareness Week from 11 to 17 November 2019

The Royal Court Theatre, alongside arts venues around the country, is taking part in Captioning Awareness Week from 11 to 17 November 2019. The Captioning Awareness Week campaign will see theatres, museums and galleries holding captioned and live subtitled events to promote access and improve people’s experiences within the arts.

Around 11 million – 1 in 5 – of the UK population are deaf, deafened or hard of hearing, yet fewer than 1% are fluent in British Sign Language. Theatres in Sheffield, Bolton, Milton Keynes, Bristol, Wolverhampton, Southampton, Bradford, York, Watford, Aylesbury and Hull have all signed up to take part, as well as London venues including the National Theatre, the Orange Tree Theatre, the Barbican Centre and the Almeida Theatre.

The charity Stagetext, which coordinates the campaign, says that arts venues need to do more to be inclusive to deaf and hard of hearing audiences. According to a report published in October 2019, only 19% of theatres list captioned performances on their websites and 26% fail to share any access information.

During Captioning Awareness Week, the captioned performances at the Royal Court include:

Wednesday 13 November, 7.30pm – On Bear Ridge by Ed Thomas, Jerwood Theatre Downstairs

Friday 15 November, 7.45pm – A History of Water in the Middle East, Jerwood Theatre Upstairs

Other captioned performances upcoming at the Royal Court include:

Wednesday 20 November, 7:30pm – On Bear Ridge by Ed Thomas, Jerwood Theatre Downstairs

Friday 22 November, 7:30pm – On Bear Ridge by Ed Thomas, Jerwood Theatre Downstairs

Midnight Movie by Eve Leigh, which runs in the Royal Court Jerwood Theatre Upstairs from Wednesday 27 November 2019 – Saturday 21 December 2019, creatively combines Spoken English, BSL, captioning, audio description and live drumming for every performance. All shows will be performed in a relaxed environment – find out more here.

For more info on Captioning Awareness Week, visit stagetext.org

To find out more and to book tickets, visit the show pages here for A History of Water in the Middle East, On Bear Ridge and Midnight Movie.