Madam, – I would like to respond to P Ó Fionnáin’s letter (May 12th) regarding the absence of loop facilitation at the Gate Theatre in Dublin.
The Irish Hard of Hearing Association (IHHA) has been organising theatre outings for its members for the past ten years.
The Gate Theatre has always been most helpful and has provided the script for us to read prior to the show and has obliged us with discount on block bookings.
We were at The Old Curiosity Shop at the Gate Theatre in December 2008 for our IHHA Christmas Theatre Outing. With scripts provided by the Gate we were well able to follow the order of events and had a great night out.
We have looked for the loop systems in the past and several theatres boast them but in our experience none of them works satisfactorily and this leads to a lot of disappointment and complaints from patrons.
During the past 18 months we have tended to shift our allegiance to the Abbey Theatre, which, with the assistance of ADI Arts (Arts Council) has pioneered the introduction of captions. This is, in effect, subtitles on screens placed on the stage.
For those of us who hear less well we still need the script to read before we go.
The Gate Theatre has been in correspondence with us over the years and has shown an interest in helping us after they have extended the rehearsal area and we are grateful for that support.
Both the Gate and the Abbey Theatre have their priorities right. – Yours, etc,