Zoe McWhinney: Review of The Globe’s ensemble plays from a BSL perspective (BSL)

In late February, I visited the Globe Ensemble during one of their rehearsals. When we walked in there were 12 of the Globe’s ensemble actors huddled in circles across the rehearsal hall, doing what looked like to us an inquisition exercise; dissecting the Shakespearean script and characters together, collaboratively.

Watch Zoe signing her article below, or scroll down to continue in English.

 

This is a first for the Globe to work in such an anarchic way, with minimal hierarchy from the director down to the small-role actors.

All the ensemble actors were encouraged to attend every rehearsal during the three month rehearsal period to give their eyes and share their perspectives, in an atmosphere not unlike that of ‘Research and Development.’ (where all involved are allowed to share their ideas and thoughts freely, aiming to make good theatre together)

To see an interview with Nadia Nadarajah, filmed by the Globe, click play below:

It was so refreshing to see a Deaf actor, Nadia Nadarajah being included in more than “just hire an interpreter” way, in such a prestigious theatre too.

She was involved and others acknowledged and respected her presence in the plays. However, her being the only one fluent in BSL and Deaf within this group of 12, it presents a monumental challenge for Nadarajah and the ensemble to intertwine BSL and Deaf elements in their two plays, Hamlet and As You Like It.

As for the BSL aspect of the plays, I looked at whether or not the characters interacted with Nadarajah’s characters on stage. I do appreciate this type of linguistic arrangement as a ‘practical, realist’ presentation of BSL in these plays.

However, after watching these plays I feel like other actors could delve a bit more deeply into their character’s knowledge of BSL and what their relationships with the Deaf characters means to their own characters.

That aside, a bold, modern spirit of indifference to race and gender carries throughout the Ensemble’s ‘gender/ race-blind’ casting  – choosing Michelle Terry as Hamlet and Shubham Saraf as Ophelia, and Nadarajah as Ceila, who is the cousin of Rosaline performed by Jack Laskey.

The alternative dynamics I see on stage are radically fresh, original and well worth Deaf audiences seeing.

HAMLET

In this tragedy play, Nadarajah’s Guildenstern character is essentially “connected at the hip” with Rosencrantz which is played by Pearce Quigley – and they finishes off each other’s sentences.

We don’t often see a hearing, older white man signing on stage emitting an electric chemistry with an Deaf woman from an ethnic background, working in unison with each other whilst saying their lines. So hats off to Quigley and Nadarajah for carrying it off.

That said, when the spotlight was off the couple, I found it difficult to split my eyes between “eye-dropping” on the duo’s hushed signed conversation in the background (talking about what’s being said on the stage) and reading the captions.

This “eyes-splitting” (looking in two places at once) is happening likely because Quigley’s signs (and sometimes Nadarajah’s) are still very brief, simplified and sometimes mumbled so captions were often better for following the story – but I was curious about their hushed signing, that only a few in the audience could understand. Perhaps the intention was to portray an inner world between Guildenstern and Rosencrantz.

In the scene first showing Hamlet’s descent into madness, Hamlet started signing when talking with Rosecrantz and Guildstern; her half-comprehensible, simplified and muffled SSE sitting nicely with Hamlet’s madness.

However the signing didn’t continue for long after Hamlet stopped talking to the duo, and it did leave me wondering why Hamlet, in the throes of her madness, picked up signing, seemingly only for Guildenstern’s benefit, only to falter when he’s gone.

It’s up to Deaf and BSL audiences to decide whether if the Ensemble get away with “that’s madness for you”. All in all, I didn’t feel connected to the cathartic experience Hamlet is known for.

AS YOU LIKE IT

In this play, Nadarajah played a more prominent role of Ceila, Rosalind’s cousin.

Whilst in Hamlet there are an epidemic of individuals wrapped up in speaking their lines in melancholia, in As You Like It the dynamics are more cohesive, and lighter. This is where I could see Nadarajah’s her prowess in translating Shakespearian text clearly come out in full force. And it is wonderful to watch.

The cousinly love between Ceila and Rosalind is beautifully expressed through BSL and it warmed my heart – which is quite impressive for less than 3 months’ worth of learning to say the lines in BSL on Laskey’s part.

The humour and charisma in Rosalind’s role nicely compensated for when the BSL skills weren’t quite there. Alongside Ceila’s relationship with her parents, they added period touches interacting with Ceila’s deafness on the stage as well, and those things give Ceila’s characterisation a more authentic feel – which, again, is rare to see in context of a larger play unrelated to “deaf themes”.

For me, towards the end there is kind of a hole in the plot of Ceila and Oliver’s relationship – Ceila, a strong Deaf woman, instantaneously falls for Oliver and married him – but I didn’t see any signing in Shubham Saraf’s Oliver character – which is a little baffling for me, if I’m honest! However the costumes in this play are very jaunty and quirky and it brings out the spirit of the Globe.

Fresh out of university after 3 years of studying International Relations with Political Science at Birmingham, Zoë McWhinney is currently a freelance creative. She is a BSL poet and Visual Vernacular artist, and one of the founders of BSL Slam. Politically-minded, and a massive people (and cats) person! She is the vice president of European Deaf Students’ Union, a union campaigning to raise the standards of the Deaf student life and accessibility across Europe.