AirScript's developers, Cambridge Consultants, hopes the handsets will attract more tourists to theatres, but as well as this market, a secondary audience is Deaf and hearing impaired patrons who can use the device to read English subtitles.
The subtitles, received over WiFi on handsets, scroll throughout live performances.
David Bradshaw, group leader of the Software Technology Group at Cambridge Consultants said that the etiquette of the AirScript had been an important factor in its development.
"Theatres are not typically welcoming of technology in the auditorium," he told BBC News.
"Our biggest challenge was to get a screen into a theatre that wouldn't distract the rest of the audience."
A manual operator ensures that each line hits the handheld screens at the same time as it is delivered on stage. Because each performance is live and subject to pauses or the occasional setback, the process cannot be automated.
Ben Young has coordinated the handset scripts throughout the development of the device. He described the nightly experience of delivering the same script of Hairspray, perhaps rather generously, as "like two and half hours of playing Guitar Hero".
For people wishing to use the device for English captions, the plus side is that they can access any show on any night they choose, although user feedback has been both positive and negative:
- The device is difficult and/or tiring to hold.
- Screen needed to be held at exact angle to get good contrast to read.
- Brightness level of unit font was very good.
- Glare from onstage lighting sometimes affected the view of the screen.
The Airscript device is currently being used for The Lion King, in London’s Lyceum Theatre.
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