Tribes: New Zealand Sign Language Interpreted

Circa Theatre is excited to offer a New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL) interpreted performance of the current Circa One play, Tribes, for Deaf audience members. This will be the first time that Circa will present a performance of this type.

“We believe that theatre should be accessible to all people, and offering an NZSL interpreted performance is another step towards making that a reality,” said Ray Henwood, Circa Council Co-ordinator. “Tribes is a wonderful piece to interpret, given that it deals with issues related to Deafness and communication and contains Sign within the very fabric of the play. Theatre interpretation is an artform unto itself, and we are thrilled to offer this special performance.”

NZSL interpreters Elinor Cuttiford and Saran Goldie-Anderson will interpret Nina Raine’s challenging script, dividing up the characters between them, with the aim of giving Deaf audience members the complete experience of the play.

“Tribes is a fantastic play that so powerfully presents experiences that many Deaf and hearing impaired people can relate to,” said Mark Berry, NZSL Teacher/Deaf Culture Advisor for Tribes and member of the Wellington Deaf Society. “I am very excited to see the NZSL interpreted performance and think it will be a great event for the Wellington Deaf community, who don’t get to see interpreted theatre very often.”

The NZSL interpreted performance of Tribes will take place on Friday, 3 May at 8pm. To watch the NZSL video trailer, please click here. This performance is open to the general public.

Tribes, directed by Ross Jolly, is a smart, highly original and funny new play that has wowed critics and audiences around the world. To book for the NZSL interpreted performance, please email circa@circa.co.nz and indicate that you would like to sit in the designated NZSL section. Adult tickets for patrons associated with Deaf Aotearoa and the Wellington Deaf Society will be offered for the discounted price of $38.

Circa would like to thank the J R McKenzie Trust Deaf Development Fund and Nicola Clements of Odd Socks Productions, for their invaluable assistance.

Tribes

In this 2010 article by Tribes playwright Nina Raine, she explains about her inspiration for the play.

I first had the idea of writing Tribes when I watched a documentary about a deaf couple. The woman was pregnant. They wanted their baby to be deaf.

I was struck by the thought that this was actually what many people feel, deaf or otherwise. Parents take great pleasure in witnessing the qualities they have managed to pass on to their children. Not only a set of genes. A set of values, beliefs. Even a particular language. The family is a tribe: an infighting tribe but intensely loyal.

Once I started looking around, tribes were everywhere. I went to New York and was fascinated by the orthodox Jews in Williamsburg, who all wear a sort of uniform. They were like an enormous extended family.

And just like some religions can seem completely mad to non-believers, so the rituals
and hierarchies of a family can seem nonsensical to an outsider.

I learnt some sign language. I found it immensely tiring. Sign demands that you heighten your facial expressions – ‘like’ – you stroke your neck downwards and smile beatifically, ‘don’t like’ you stroke your neck upwards and make a face almost as if you are throwing up. I felt like I was being made to assume a personality that didn’t fit me. I realised how much we express our personality through the way we speak. I didn’t like having to change my personality. And sign has a different grammar. I felt stupid, slow, uncomprehending. Was this what it might be like to be a deaf person trying to follow a rapid spoken conversation? But I was also envious. I loved the way sign looked when used by those fluent in it. It could be beautiful. Wouldn’t it be great to be a ‘virtuoso’ in sign? They must exist, like poets or politicians in the hearing world…

Finally, I thought about my own family. Full of its own eccentricities, rules, in-jokes and
punishments. What if someone in my (hearing, garrulous) family had been born deaf?

All these things went into the play, which took a very long time to write. All I knew was that at the beginning we would be plunged into a family dinner. The first scene was easy to write. I wrote it with no idea of the characters’ names, or of how many siblings there were. But oddly, it is one of the scenes that has hardly changed during the writing of the play. It sat there for a very long time. And then, slowly, I wrote the rest. The crazy family was born fully formed. I just had to work out what happened to them.

Nina Raine

Nina Raine

22 SEPTEMBER 2010

http://www.royalcourttheatre.com/news/articles/nina-raine-why-i-wrote-tribes/

Tribes opens on 6 April, with a $25 preview performance on Friday, 5 April and a $25 special on Sunday, 7 April. To book, call the Circa Box Office on 801-7992 or visit www.circa.co.nz.