Abbey Theatre to stage subtitled play

A play at the Abbey Theatre is to be subtitled for the first time for deaf members of the audience, it emerged today.

Subtitles facilities will be available for the November 24 performance of the popular new version of 'The Playboy of the Western World', which is co-written by Roddy Doyle and Bisi Adigun.

The actors’ words will appear on screens near the stage at the same time as they are spoken or sung. Character names, sound effects and off-stage noises are also shown.

The facilities, which are being used for the first time in the Abbey’s 104-year history, are being co-ordinated by Arts & Disability Ireland (ADI) with funding from The Arts Council.

Audio-description service will be also be available for blind or visually-impaired people for a performance on this Saturday evening.

A narrator will provide a live commentary of what happens on stage via headphones used by members of the audience.

Audience members will also receive programme notes in Braille, audio or large-print with information about the set, characters and costumes.

Audio-description facilities were first provided at the Abbey in September 2006.

The subtitles and audio-description services are provided by Belfast-based Sight Lines audio-describers, the National Council for the Blind of Ireland, Theatre Forum and UK captioning provider Stagetext.

ADI director Padraig Naughton said: “I was determined that Irish blind or visually impaired and deaf or hard of hearing audiences should have access to the best high quality productions in mainstream theatre venues.

“As a visually impaired person myself, my first experience of an Abbey performance was our first audio-description in September 2006.”

In 2006 ADI secured an Arts Council capital grant of €38,000 for the purchase of dedicated audio-description and captioning equipment for use by Irish theatre venues.

It also trained a pool of audio describers to work in the Republic of Ireland.

In 2008, ADI and the Northern Ireland Theatre Association and Stagetext aims to train a pool of captioners to work in the North and the Republic.

Several audio-descriptions are planned for the Abbey in 2008 starting with a performance of George Farquhar’s 'The Recruiting Officer' in January.

There will also be subtitled performances and one audio-described performance at the Dublin Theatre Festival, as well as four other venues outside Dublin.