Captioning Awareness Week: Which West End shows and UK venues are participating?
Updated on 9 October 2023
Stagetext, a charity organisation that strives to make theatre more accessible to D/deaf people (deaf, deafened, and hard of hearing), has organised their November 2019 campaign for raising captioning awareness. Performing arts venues, galleries, and museums nationwide will participate in Captioning Awareness Week from Monday, 11 November to Sunday, 17 November 2019, it has been confirmed.
Find out which West End shows will be participating next week along with captioned performance dates and times below.
About the D/deaf community in the UK and Stagetext's Captioning Awareness Week
1 in 5 people in the UK (approximately 11 million of the total population) are deaf, deafened, or hard of hearing and only 1% of the population are fluent in BSL (British Sign Language). The 2019 Captioning Awareness campaign will see various arts venues across the nation hold live subtitled and captioned vents to help promote accessibility within the arts community.
London theatre venues such as the Royal Court, Orange Tree Theatre, Almeida Theatre, Barbican Centre, and the National Theatre have all pledged to participate in the campaign along with many theatres in Bolton, Bristol, Sheffield, Milton Keynes, Wolverhampton, Bradford, York, Watford, Southampton, Hull, and Aylesbury.
What West End shows are participating in Captioning Awareness Week?
Next week's campaign will see such shows as Groan Ups, Noises Off, Come From Away, Mamma Mia!, and A Day in the Death of Joe Egg participating in the event by providing captioned and live subtitled performances throughout the week. Here is a quick overview of upcoming performances captioned by Stagetext for both Captioning Awareness Week and afterwards:
Show: Come From Away
Venue: Phoenix Theatre
When: 11 November at 7.30pm
Show: Noises Off
Venue: Garrick Theatre
When: 11 November at 7.30pm
Show: A Day in the Death of Joe Egg
Venue: Trafalgar Studios
When: 12 November at 7.30pm
Show: Mamma Mia!
Venue: Novello Theatre
When: 16 November at 3pm
Show: Groan Ups
Venue: Vaudeville Theatre
When: 16 November at 7.30pm
Show: The Comedy About a Bank Robbery
Venue: Criterion Theatre
When: 22 November at 7.30pm
Show: Matilda
Venue: Cambridge Theatre
When: 23 November at 2.30pm (captioned in-house)
By Nicholas Ephram Ryan Daniels
Ephram is a jack of all trades and enjoys attending theatre, classical music concerts and the opera.