The Questors Commits to Captioned Performances
At least one will be held for all its 18 in-house productions this year
A captioned performance of Gulb at The Questors
March 13, 2025
As part of its drive to make the venue more accessible, The Questors Theatre in Ealing has made a pledge to provide a captioned performance for each of its in-house productions this year.
It says it is one of the first amateur theatres in the country to invest in its own captioning equipment and commit to regular captioned performances. 18 in-house productions are planned for the rest of 2025.
Captioned performances are commonplace in the West End so now people with hearing impairment don’t need to travel as far for a visit to the theatre.
Captioning displays the spoken word as visible text to provide deaf, deafened and hard of hearing people with access to live performance. Similar to television subtitles, the script is displayed on an LED caption unit on or next to the stage, as the words are spoken or sung. Captions can also include the name of the character speaking and descriptions of any sound effects or music; and are used by anyone who may have difficulty hearing or understanding the audible elements of a live performance.
Demand for captioning is increasing. The Royal National Institute for Deaf People (RNID) report there are 18 million deaf, deafened or hard of hearing adults in the UK and more than half the population aged over 55 have hearing loss. A recent survey shows more than two-thirds of people find it difficult to hear what is happening during a live performance and 31% said they would be more likely to increase their attendance at live shows if captioning was offered. This is also reflected in TV subtitling, with Netflix revealing that 40% of its global viewers have subtitles on all the time, while 80% switch them on at least once a month.
Michael Eppy, Executive Director, The Questors Theatre says, “The Questors Theatre’s mission is to make theatre open to everyone, so we are delighted to announce our commitment to captioning one performance of each of our 18 in-house shows per year. This is a great step in the right direction for a more inclusive theatre and we look forward to welcoming those who are deaf and hard of hearing to enjoy our productions.”
The Questors Theatre has acquired its own in-house captioning equipment thanks to a grant by The Theatres Trust. The equipment has been supplied by Digital 4 and will be operated live during performances by volunteer community captioners, who are being trained by Digital 4’s Director and Questors member, Roger Beaumont. He says, “I’m delighted to be working with The Questors Theatre to make captioning a reality for our audiences. It has been a long-held ambition of mine to make this happen and open up the theatre to the deaf and hard of hearing community.” Roger Beaumont, Director of Digital 4 and Questors member
The first two productions to be captioned at The Questors Theatre are Trojan Barbie by Christine Evans (21 to 29 March) with the captioned performance on 27 March, and the classic musical My Fair Lady (28 March to 5 April) in which captions will be used for the performance on 3 April.
Tickets can be purchased at www.questors.org.uk or by calling the Box Office on 020 567 0011 or emailing boxoffice@questors.org.uk.
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