Extraordinary Wall of Silence
Bristol Old Vic/Touring

FOR many, sign language is a barely comprehensible series of hand gestures delivered on the sidelines of a main event, addressed to an invisible audience. With Ad Infinitum’s latest production, it takes centre stage.

Based on many hours of interviews with deaf people, the company tackles their shameful treatment throughout history with this dynamic piece of physical theatre.

Starting from the 1880 Milan Conference on educating the deaf, where a resolution was passed banning sign language in schools, three narrative threads are woven together to investigate the destructive ramifications of such a decision.

Under George Mann’s direction the cast of four, with only one speaking, explore the lives of three contemporary characters and the hardships that they have faced in a world where sign language is frequently ridiculed and ignored as a valid, articulate form of communication.

Allan, born to a strict religious father, is seen as an embarrassment. His inability to hear is seen to be the work of evil spirits and his harsh treatment — beatings at home and abuse at school — is a crushing indictment of a culture that still does not recognise deafness for what it is.

Graham is from a contrastingly happy, non-hearing family, who struggles to learn in an education system that forces him to adopt oralism as the only way to progress, while Helen is given cochlea implants at a very young age and unsuccessfully tries to adapt to the hearing world in order to please her parents.

Although the historic facts about Alexander Graham Bell’s belief that deafness was a genetic contamination and the sterilisation of deaf people under Hitler’s regime are effectively introduced, the real power of this performance is the expressiveness of the sign language used on stage.

While I’d question some of the inferences made about the implications for deaf people regarding the current state of genetic engineering, what is unquestionable is the power of sign language.

The hands, faces and bodies of the four actors communicate with a clarity, fluency and emotion that, rightly, places them firmly in the spotlight.

Runs at Salisbury Playhouse until October 26 and tours nationally early next year, details: ad-infinitum.org.