Mary Sutherland, Associate Director on WonderBoy tells us how seeing a captioned show changed her life (BSL)

I first moved to Derby in 2016 for my undergraduate degree. I had always wanted to become an artist, primarily in theatre or as a musician, but was always aware of the pressure to have a “proper job”.  So I enrolled in the BSc Zoology course.

In the first week of freshers I polled along to the Glee Club event, the first on my itinerary. Listen, it was 2016. I sat at the back near a guy with a snazzy scarf. He introduced himself as Lewis. We had no idea that seven years after this meeting, almost to the day, we would open our first show in London together.

Lewis and I became fast friends with the shared experiences of being creatives in a scientific field. By January 2017 we had revitalised and reformed the Derby University Musical Theatre Society (DUMTS).

Over our degrees Lewis honed his skills as a producer and I discovered a love of directing and conducting. We put on annual spring musicals, showcases and christmas varieties, hosting fundraisers and our ensemble even won a couple of awards.

But there was a spanner in the works. At the start of my second year I got freshers flu, and I got it bad. It took around two months for me to return to my studies properly, and I couldn’t hear my headphones… Or the new ones I replaced them with.

After Lewis pulled me back from oncoming traffic I hadn’t heard, I got a hearing test, where they showed me a baffling chart of X’s and dotted lines and numbers. I had a moderate-severe bilateral hearing loss. Ah.

Going deaf meant I thought my music career was over. I stopped speaking for a while because I couldn’t regulate my volume properly, I didn’t trust my voice anymore. I couldn’t hear the notes my sopranos were singing, so I couldn’t direct them.

In Markeaton Park I’d jump on the autumn leaves, waiting to hear the crackles and crunches. The world had become quiet, and far away.

My friends told me there was a show at Derby Theatre called Reasons To Be Cheerful, which would be captioned so I could read along with the show. I wasn’t quite sure about it, I was very busy sulking, but I went along – I’d never seen captioned theatre before.

That show changed my life. It sounds dramatic but it did! I saw deaf people using sign language and their voices on stage, being successful and talented and everything! There was music, disabled performers of many kinds, and it was a story of hope. I was acutely aware for the first time the power of representation.

I started learning British Sign Language (BSL) from a local deaf painter called John. He had a beautiful hand painted yellow caravan outside his house with flowers and vines – you could spot it a mile off. I also took up the violin, using vibrations to learn pitch. Besides, if it sounded bad, it wouldn’t bother me.

The deaf world is a welcoming one. There is culture, history, and language that I never knew about. Deaf people have been saying for a long time “we are here, we are ready, come and meet us”. Learning BSL opened up this world to me. Did you know there’s a Deaflympics?

I had my confidence back. I had language and music back, and a new appreciation for both. I managed to land one of my first professional theatre gigs as Assistant Director on Derby Theatre’s Treasure Island with integrated BSL, but the show was sadly cut short by covid.

But this job emboldened me to really try in theatre. I applied to the directing MFA at East 15 Drama School and the rest is history. It’s wonderful to return to the places that shaped the course of my career.

The theatre landscape is changing; access and disabled representation is a hot topic right now. Wonder Boy is a vibrant contrast to the industry standard of one captioned and one interpreted performance per run – if you’re busy on that one Tuesday evening then tough luck.

Shows like Wonder Boy prove that when access is prioritised, new communities are welcomed to the theatre. And you never know, if audiences see themselves on the stage – they might even join in.

Photo credit Akta Photography 

For further information about Mary see www.marysutherland.co.uk

www.wonderboyplay.com

You can also find out more on Twitter/Instagram/Facebook: @wonderboyplay