Making sense of silence

There is more than one way of getting the message across, speech therapist James (Nic Farra) shows deaf student Sarah (Miranda Harcourt) during rehearsals yesterday for the play, Children of a Lesser God.

Both actors spent eight months learning sign language for the play, which opens at Wellington’s Circa Theatre next week.

Children of a Lesser God is the story of Sarah, a deaf student who refuses to communicate except through sign language.

The conflict between Sarah and her tutor, James, turns to romance, but neither can bridge the gap between a hearing and non-hearing world.

The play, written by Mark Medoff and directed by Lisa Warrington, won an American Tony award for best play of 1980 and London’s West End Drama Critics Award for best play in 1981. It runs at Circa till January 31.

Actress Sandra McKay, who plays Lydia, another deaf student, said the play was about deafness but applied to all forms of disability.

“It catches the frustration, which is important,” she says. Language is about humans communicating to each other. If I was deaf, I might be able to lip-read what you said but I would miss the subtlety of the tones, etc.”

She said the play was relevant to hearing and non-hearing audiences.

The theatre is arranging a special showing of the play, with an interpreter, for deaf people, their families and tutors.