Juliet England: New help for outdoor theatre goers with a hearing loss

For many, a piece of outdoor theatre (typically Shakespeare) will have been an essential part of the summer, the memories lingering as autumn approaches.

But if you have a hearing loss, fully immersing yourself in an al fresco performance can be a minefield. Indeed, it’s hard enough for a hearing person to catch every word, never mind someone facing the extra hurdle of poorly functioning ears.

Of course, things are being done to enhance access. Theatre captions, displaying the text of the script on screens at the front of the auditorium, are wonderful. (Provided you can find seats for a show you actually want to see, in a convenient time and place.)

And my Limping Chicken co-writer Liam O’Dell has previously written about the National Theatre’s smart glasses allowing the wearer to access live subtitles.

But for open air performances? Er, take the script and try and follow the text?

I wrote about this myself – and, actually, it’s surprisingly hard to do. Unless you happen to have the same script the cast is working from, to put it technically, you’re stuffed. And, anyway, even the most midsummery production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream will probably take place at least partially in darkness.

Now an app could help transform the al fresco theatre experience, with text displayed on a phone or other mobile device, but still delivered by a live captioner. The technology, called the Difference Engine, is being developed by the Talking Birds theatre company.

Media and Communications Officer at the Royal Shakespeare Company Emily Magdij, herself a trained live theatre captioner and audio describer, says: “It’s a really interesting piece of kit. They exciting thing is that it’s designed with artists and creatives in mind. They get involved far earlier in the creative process.”

The RSC has been trialling the technology with two semi-professional theatre organisations, BMH Productions and the Shakespeare Stratford Company. The Difference Engine has been sampled at a number of free performances this summer at The Dell, the RSC’s outdoor summer stage in Stratford-on-Avon’s Avonbank Gardens.

Magdij, who is taking the exams to qualify as a Stagetext captioner, added: “The Dell is open over the summer for semi-professional, amateur and community theatre companies to perform there. This was the first time we’ve captioned an outdoor event. But I’m hoping it’ll lead to similar efforts later on.”

This summer, the Difference Engine was available at a Stratford Shakespeare Company production of The Two Gentlemen of Verona in early August, and two performances by BMH Productions on August 25 – Richard III and Romeo and Juliet. While no booking was needed and entry was free, visitors using the app were invited to download it in advance.

Magdij continues: “I helped guide the companies through preparing a script for captioning. Working with the artists like this means they start thinking about the captions and how to ensure their show and the captions work together much earlier on, and they learn how to use the equipment themselves. They may consider captioning productions more readily, and think about how they can use captions artistically to make the performance as engaging as possible.

“The companies were both heavily involved in preparing the scripts, and did the captioning themselves on the day, with my help.

“Of course, it’s great for audiences too, and the atmosphere at these shows was lovely. We’ve had some great feedback, including from a family whose members all had different types of deafness, and who said they simple wouldn’t have been able to follow the play otherwise.”

General Manager at Talking Birds Theatre Company Philippa Cross, who has been managing this project, says: “We developed the Difference Engine because we found that existing access solutions were not suitable – or affordable – for a small company like ours. We’re particularly interested in the creative possibilities of the Difference Engine, and in shifting responsibility for access to the creative process, rather than it being an afterthought – so it’s great to see that increasingly happening.”

While the prototype has been in production for the last nine years, recent funding has allowed Talking Birds to develop the Difference Engine, which was previously browser-access only, and to make it more reliable.

While the standard version works via a laptop, router and mains power, the portable version, which the RSC was trialling this month, uses a Raspberry pi with a touchscreen, running off a battery pack.

Cross adds: “There were some issues with captions lagging behind actors’ words, which we’re working on with further testing.”

The Difference Engine can switch between pre-loaded and live captions, and Talking Birds has developed a feature allowing downloads of articles, photos, cast information and other relevant material for reading later.

Cross adds: “Our priority now is to get theatre companies across Coventry using it ahead of it being the UK’s City of Culture in 2021. We want Coventry to be the most accessible city of culture to date! We believe that by thinking about access issues and finding solutions to them from the outset, you make a better show for everyone. That means involving more people earlier on; writers, directors and the like.”

Cross acknowledges that the technology won’t be right for everyone, at every show.

“We’ve had feedback from a small number of people who found it challenging at times – particularly on longer shows. Also that holding the phone for a longer time is tiring. But we’ve also had feedback from many others who haven’t found this  problematic. Like any captioning system, it will suit some people, but not everyone. On a lot of site-specific or outdoor work, you are closer to the action than in a theatre, so it can be less of an issue.

“We are also looking into suitable holders for devices, and  the Difference Engine is still very much being developed.”

For its part, the RSC has one or two captioned performance per production, and usually at least one BSL-signed performance in each of its two Stratford theatres per season.

Having begun the training as a captioner and audio describer at the end of 2018, Magdij hopes ultimately to work in other theatres apart from Stratford. It was her decision to do the training, offered through her day job.

“Initially I was interested because I had learned about assisted performances through my job. Before that I hadn’t considered the issue in detail. But I’ve always been interested in accessibility, partly because my grandmother used a wheelchair. The more I learned about assisted performances, the more it struck me that everyone should have access to the same kinds of entertainment. I’ve become an advocate for accessible performances since then.”

We should point out that others provide open-air captioning too, for example Stagetext, which says: “We have multiple outdoor events over the year, and for example Evita at the Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre on Friday September 6.”