David Thompson: Theatres – will they never learn?

I’m a hard of hearing man married to a profoundly deaf woman, and one of our hobbies is going to the theatre, often with groups of deaf friends.  

Over more than twenty years this has been extremely frustrating, as I have found myself tackling the same problems with different hearing people over and over again.  They never seem to learn.

In this blog I give examples of my experience over the last few months that reflect a lifetime of theatre going.

In my first example, I emailed an Edinburgh theatre about their Christmas show:  “who will the interpreters be and which side of the stage will they stand?” I got a quick reply:  “we don’t know, but we will put the information on the Access Scottish Theatre website when we do.”

Personally I never check this website.  Useful information is often not there because venues forget to upload it.  In fact venues do not even upload the correct information to their own websites, or if they do, it is not easy to find.  In my experience it is more effective to check with the Box Office.

In this case I happened to be near the theatre so I went to the Box Office to ask.  By this time, they could give me the names of the interpreters, but said that they didn’t know where they would be standing.  I visited again two days before the show and they still didn’t know.   

Finally, when I visited the day before the show, they had the information, and I could confirm my tickets.   But that was three times I went to the Box Office before I could be sure of getting the right seats for seeing the interpreter and the stage.

The performance itself was very good, but the interpreters looked like they had just arrived from other work, dressed all in black.  There was no effort at all to put the interpreters in costume – and this was a Christmas show!  Deaf people weren’t being offered the same experience as hearing people in the audience.

At another Christmas show, this time in Glasgow, the interpreters were seated on the auditorium floor below the level of the stage.  It was impossible to see the interpreters and the show was not accessible at all. Lots of deaf people had gone to see it and were very disappointed.  

One of the interpreters told me that it was the director’s decision – he didn’t want the interpreters or BSL on stage. In my opinion this sort of information should be shared in advance, so that deaf people can decide if they want to buy tickets or not.

The issue of giving inadequate or incorrect information is common.   At the heart of the problem is the idea that providing access for deaf people means putting an interpreter at the side of the stage.  

This is wrong on so many levels, not just that interpreted theatre is often not accessible because of where the interpreter is placed.  Visual theatre and mime (in fact any theatre with no dialogue) are also accessible for deaf people but so far the Access Scottish Theatre website does not include this in the list of access techniques they highlight.

Also, there is a real problem with the language used to describe performances.  Theatres often call shows ‘signed performances’ when they mean ‘interpreted performances’.  For many deaf people this is misleading – a signed performance should mean a performance in BSL, ideally performed by deaf people, but this is usually not the case.  Mainstream theatres almost never programme deaf/signed theatre.

As part of my efforts to try to get theatres to learn about deaf people, over the past three years I’ve been supporting Michael Richardson, who has been researching the potential of equality of access to theatre for deaf and hearing people.  As part of this I have produced a checklist for theatres to give them some guidance about how to improve their service to deaf audiences. We included the checklist in an article that we wrote together. You can read it online:

http://www.scottishjournalofperformance.org/Richardson_Thompson_deaf_people_and_theatrical_public_sphere_SJoP0502_DOI_10.14439sjop.2018.0502.02.html

It’s pretty academic though, and only available in written English, so if you just want to read the checklist, here it is:

Best practice checklist for theatres

1. For each show, identify the ways in which it might be accessible for Deaf spectators—visual theatre with no dialogue, Deaf theatre in sign language, SLIP, captioned, super-titled opera—and add this information to all marketing material connected to the show.
2. In the case of a SLIP, add the name of the interpreter, the position in which they will stand (right or left side of the stage when looking from the audience perspective), and whether they are a local interpreter or touring with the production.
3. Upload the information from above to the theatre website and to the Access Scottish Theatre (or similar) website.
4. Upload to the theatre website recent photographs of the actors in the production and a sign language video giving information about the synopsis for each show that specifically targets Deaf spectators.
5. Use this ‘Deaf-friendly’ marketing material to target Deaf spectators through appropriate channels, for example, Deaf clubs and Deaf online spaces.
6. Hold seats for Deaf spectators that have a good view of both the interpreter and the stage: in the stalls, on the same side of the auditorium as the interpreter and approximately 10 to 12 rows back from the stage.
7. Set up a pre-performance talk in sign language, with recent photographs of actors and an opportunity to introduce not only the synopsis, but also the sign names for characters and locations. Market this to Deaf spectators and book an interpreter or other sign language user to deliver it.
8. Before the performance, indicate pictorially the position of the interpreter on auditorium doors, so that Deaf patrons can check they have the right seats before entering. Be prepared to offer replacement seats if the position of the interpreter has changed from that advertised.
9. Ensure that programmes include photographs of the actors who will be performing, rather than standard publicity shots with actors who are no longer members of the cast.
10. After the show, provide a forum for post-show discussion in sign language. Video the feedback and use it for subsequent audience development.

Feel free to share this checklist with theatre companies and venues.  We are trying, but it is often difficult to find the right person to send it to, and unfortunately Creative Scotland said they couldn’t send it to Scottish companies on our behalf (apparently for reasons of data protection…).  

In the meantime all I can do is to try to teach hearing theatre staff one person at a time. But there is only one of me. Maybe it is time for a properly organised campaign that forces theatres to provide a reasonable service to deaf audiences?