Cripped captions: Captions as actors in [opera captions]

What if captions ‘step up’, ‘speak’ and ‘tell’ their stories? This article discusses Jay Afrisando’s multifaceted performance [opera captions] , which premiered in May 2023. The work reimagines what captions, as ‘actors’, can do beyond functioning as communication conveyors and sound interpreters in audio-visual media, and celebrates the lives of captions that have been both cherished and hated. [opera captions] shifts the focus from humans – the users – to the lives of the objects themselves and considers multifaceted perspectives beyond what humans typically think about captions. The result is an artwork that brings accessibility, inner-imagined voices and creativity together, manifested in theatre, music, live film, translation, on-site captioning, interactive poetry, audience participation and educational work.