Accessible Performances

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.

On this page you can find out more about accessible performances at Soho Theatre.

Performances for people who are deaf or hard of hearing

Captioning
Captioning works in a similar way to subtitles on TV or a foreign film and is aimed at deaf and hard of hearing audiences. The dialogue scrolls digitally across a box which is – placed above the stage – information is also shown about other sounds, such as music and sound effects.

If you are a hearing aid user, you may also benefit from wearing a loop headset which amplifies and clarifies the sounds in the play.

Research has found that foreign visitors or students studying a play can benefit from facilities such as captioning too.

Forthcoming Captioned Performances
A Walk on Part Wed 4 April, 7.15pm
UTOPIA Thu 28 June, 7.30pm

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
The Girl With The Iron Claws Sat 5 May, 4.30pm

Speech-To-Text
We also use a palantypist to create ‘live subtitles’ for unscripted performances, such as live comedy or after show discussions.

Palantypists or stenographers use a special keyboard to type every word that is spoken phonetically – that is, how they sound rather than how they’re spelt. This is then converted back into English. Everything that they typed appears on a computer screen with a slight delay.

By typing this way, the reporter can keep up with the speed of spoken English. The result is usually spelt at least 95% correctly and the remaining words are spelt roughly how they sound.

Forthcoming Speech-To-Text performances

Performances for people who are blind or have a visual impairment

Audio Description 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.

Forthcoming Audio Described Performances
The Table Wed 23 May, 7.30pm
UTOPIA Mon 2 July, 7.30pm

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.