24th June 2006

With Midsummer’s Day a complete wash out in terms of weather, heavy rain and high winds driving the dress rehearsals inside, I was nervous this morning looking out the window for the Saturday evening show. In the event, there was no wind, no rain, and a full house.

Weather had been my only worry – since the actors all know their stuff – consummate professionals all. In the preceding weeks, I’d seen them taking on not just a new script, with all that entails, but the translation of that script into British Sign Language (BSL). I can only imagine how it must have felt for them to discover that they had to communicate in two languages at once (a bit like sneezing and keeping your eyes open at the same time – try it) – BSL having its own grammar and rules. But they took it all in their stride.

Saturday night, then, the actors had mastered all this, with the gentle help of BSL tutor Wendy (and a little coaxing, I suspect, from the Director).

To say they surpassed my expectations would not do justice to the way the team tackled a difficult script in two languages. To see my words turned into 3-dimensional reality, not just in living/acting terms, but in the sheer poetry of the fluid movement of their signing, was an enrichment and an inhabiting of the characters that I found both moving and powerful. Everything was there that night- tone, gesture, movement, and above all the silence that underlies the play.

Claire’s understated, minimal but colourful set and costumes were more than the backdrop, they were where and how the characters lived.

Having enjoyed the pageant and the parade, and found the little jokes, members of the audience I spoke to were also deeply moved by the actor’s skills. One woman – who works with victims of torture – added simply: “That’s how it is”.

That’s how it is.

Gerry Loose, writer