Original work from our Writers, Guest Bloggers and Freelancers
Viewing entries tagged
ASL
The play presents the scenario without comment, which can be infuriating from an audience perspective. To know something is amiss about these relationships, but finding validation nowhere can feel like gaslighting. However, directors Mary Kate Ashe and Aaron Sawyer pick up on the subtle creeping horror of modern heteronormativity and family bonds by employing two modes of communication and double casting.
Performers in this production learned clowning fundamentals, sign language, and in many cases they acted as interpreters for their stage counterparts. The commitment to inclusion for performers and audience members of all abilities is groundbreaking for Chicago, and inspiring to be a part of, even if it’s just to learn the symbol for ‘alone’ (an index finger held at chest level) or being asked by a woodland mutant to hold onto their signed letter ‘G’ as they distribute Red’s love letters.
This production features both deaf and hearing actors, super titles for some more intricate exchanges, and interpreters as needed for audience members. The concept that Sawyer and Bauer have concocted involves more than just comprehension; they want to immerse every person in the history, culture and stigmas of deafness.
I just wasn't getting it, I thought. Then I met Tina and she reframed my train of thought. “Depression is like a disease,” she sympathized as tears rolled down my cheek one at a time as if they wanted to be fair and give each other recognition; my family didn’t acknowledge this statement. Depression was something that was trumped and not coddled.
