Soho Theatre provides regular captioned, sign language interpreted and audio described performances for our plays for people who are deaf or hard of hearing or who are blind and have a visual impairment.
PERFORMANCES FOR PEOPLE WHO ARE DEAF, DEAFENED OR HARD OF HEARING
Sign Language Performances
BSL Interpreted plays feature an on-stage interpreter who converts spoken dialogue into British Sign Language. BSL has a unique structure and syntax and the interpreter will spend several weeks learning a play before performing their translation.
Forthcoming BSL Interpreted performances
Check back here soon for BSL performances
CAPTIONING & LIVE SUBTITLING
Captioning converts the spoken word into text that provides people with hearing loss access to live performance. In captioning, the words appear on a screen at the same time as they are sung or spoken. Captions also include sound effects and offstage noises.
We provide Live Subtitles for unscripted performances, such as live comedy or after-show discussions. Palantypists use a special keyboard to type phonetically every word that is spoken. Everything that is typed appears on the captioning screen, albeit with a slight delay.
If you are a hearing aid user, you may also benefit from wearing a loop headset which amplifies and clarifies the performers and sounds on stage.
Forthcoming captioned performances
Pastoral – Thu 23 May, 7.30pm Tickets:£12.50
Address Unknown: Thu 12 July, 7.15pm Tickets: £12.50
Performances for people who are blind or have a visual impairment
Audio Description
Pastoral – Thu 30 May, 7.30pm Tickets: £12.50
Even Stillness Breaths Softly Against A Brick Wall – Sat 8 Jun, 3.30pm Tickets: £12.50
Address Unknown – Thu 18 July, 7.15pm Tickets: £12.50
If you’re blind or you have a visual impairment we don’t want you to miss out on anything that happens on stage. Our Audio Described performances give you a live commentary about the action happening on stage through a pair of small headphones.Like a narrator telling a story, a trained describer will tell you about the things you might not be able to see, describing body language, expressions and movements, so that you can keep up with the action.
There is a live introduction which will tell you about the characters, their costumes and the appearance of the set 15 minutes before the start of the show.
Touch tours
To help you immerse yourself in the show as much as possible we offer touch tours before each audio-described performance enabling you to explore the stage and get a feel of the set and costumes before the play starts.
If you’d like to experience a touch tour before you come along to the audio described performance please let us know when you book your ticket so we can get everything ready in advance for you. Touch tours normally take place 1 hour before the start of the show.
Audio Guides
In preparation for your visit we provide an audio guide for every audio described play.
The audio guide includes an introduction to the play, a reminder of the times of the performance, the touch tour as well as useful information for your visit.
The introduction to the play, the set, the characters and their costumes is repeated live 15 minutes before the show. This also gives us the chance to tell you more about the production or any last minute changes that might be included. Please contact us if you are interested in our Audio guides.
Hi. Please can you put on more live stand-up comedy with speech to text provision for deaf people? This is a great innovation and, as a deaf person myself, I'd really like to see lots of stand-up comedy featuring a wide range of comedians, from the little known to all the big names. Hope this will be possible. Thanks!