Clowning Around

CLOWNING AROUND: Peter Barker, left, Lindsay Jones and Shaun Ruffell hold the mirror up to, from left, Dorothy Jones, Erina Haronga and Annette Scott.

They are all members of Palmerston North-based Madedra (Manawatu Deaf Drama Group).

Chilean-born drama tutor Rolmedo Olmedo reckons he has found in them some of the best mime actors he has ever worked with. “They are so natural,” he says. Natural because they are all profoundly deaf and mime is part of their “language”.

Madedra will mime its way through two public performances at the Abbey Theatre in Palmerston North this week.

Jones and Ruffell had seen drama by the profoundly deaf in London and America. They reported to a meeting of the Deaf Club in March and Madedra was born.

It has a core of six actors and nine others to do publicity, make-up, costumes and ticket sales. Mr Olmedo became involved when the Community Arts Council lent its support and has worked with the group for the past 2½ months, putting together a 90-minute production. The first half is a play called People and the second a series of simple skits.

He said the performance had not been scripted. He had merely allowed the actors to express the deaf culture in their own way.