When I noticed that Phantom of the Opera was at our local theatre I thought I would really love to see that but felt there was no point as I wouldn’t hear the dialogue or the music.
I had been to a captioned performance before but to be honest I found this really difficult as the captions were high up on each side of the stage. I found it so tiring to keep looking at the words on the caption and then try to follow what was happening on the stage. By the end of the evening I was holding on to the back of my neck as it really started to ache with constantly looking up.
As Phantom of the Opera was at a different theatre I wondered if their captions would be situated in a better position. So my friend Rita and I decided to go to the theatre box office and find out what dates they were showing their captioned performances.
They chap we spoke to was very helpful once I told him what we were after but unfortunately he wasn’t able to tell me where the captions would be positioned. However, we decided that as we really wanted to see the show we would go ahead and book it.
We had a really good seat near the front of the stage. I noticed that the captions were about half way up the stage and not quite as high as the other theatre. I thought good that looks a bit better.
Once the show started I soon realised that it wasn’t going to be as easy as I thought. The captions only came up with three lines of dialogue at a time. So as I tried to quickly read the words then look to see what was happening on the stage the next set of words were up. I found that the constant turning back and forward meant I either missed some of the dialogue or what was happening on the stage.
Oh dear, I felt really disappointed but thought that I would persevere. Once I was able to get the names of the performers and what the story was about it did make it easier to follow. Although I couldn’t hear the words to the songs by looking at the captions I then knew what was being sung. I remembered hearing the wonderful music many years ago when I was able to hear so it helped that I was able to see the words.
The other problem I had was that when the music and singing reached a ‘crescendo’ it was just too loud for me and I felt that I was always fiddling with my hearing aids putting them up or down. I know that I could have turned my hearing aids off but I wanted to feel the atmosphere in the theatre.
Even with all these problems I came away thinking that without the captions I would not been able to follow the story and get the opportunity to see such a fantastic show.