Juliet England: Deaf actor Genevieve Barr on why her success is no accident

Earlier this month, Channel 4 finished screening its four-part drama The Accident, from writer Jack Thorne who also penned Kiri and National Treasure, with which it forms a loose trilogy, looking at various aspects of guilt and blame.

The series, whose first episode is available on catch-up until mid-December, is set in the fictional small Welsh town of Glyngolau, where a major construction project offers much-needed employment and hope for the future. It’s championed by council leader Iwan Bevan (Mark Lewis Jones), whose wife Polly (Sarah Lancashire) is a focus of the story after a devastating explosion kills a number of trespassing teenagers and leaves the Bevans’ young daughter Leona with life-changing injuries.

The accident of the title leaves a scarred community in its wake, and the story explores where blame lies for it. (No spoilers here.)

It’s true that The Accident hasn’t garnered universally adoring reviews, with Lancashire’s Welsh accent and the drama’s ending (again, no spoilers!) in particular coming in for some criticism.

But Welsh accent are hardly a matter of importance for us cloth-ears, and The Accident is nonetheless a powerful piece of work depicting deafness in a way that we rarely see on TV.

Deaf actor Genevieve Barr, 33, playing a character who is also deaf, co-stars in the programme. We caught up with her by email:

Q: Tell us a bit about your character in The Accident.

My character is called Debbie Kethin – she’s newly married and recently moved back into the area with her husband, Alan. (A security guard at the building site.) She’s originally English and has had a bit of a tough time forming relationships with the women in the community who have grown up with each other. She has a lot of time on her hands and is a bit of a control freak which plays into how she manages her grief when Alan dies in the accident. She fights the isolation and ostracisation of the community, because she has no one else – no family, no friends who come to her aid.

Q: How was the experience of being deaf in a hearing cast?

I love being a deaf actor – and with this, it was great to be able to play a character with my own experiences of deafness. I’m very used to being the only deaf actor in the cast and it can take some getting used to sometimes. But most people respond very well.

Q: What would you say the main themes of the show are? 

The main themes of the show are justice, community, coping with grief. It’s a real insight into the local, rural, poor parts of Wales which have fallen into harder times.  (We filmed in the countryside around Newport and Cardiff.)

Q: What was it like working with Sarah Lancashire?

She’s a master of her craft! And it was a privilege to watch her work, how she approached the role and the responsibilities that came with it.

Q: For me, when I watched it, the best thing was seeing the character’s deafness as just a very ordinary part of life, e.g. being woken by a flashing alarm clock, not being treated any differently from any of the other characters because of their hearing loss. Although the camerawork did seem to linger on the hearing aids so viewers wouldn’t forget about Debbie’s deafness. So it’s made clearly but barely referenced in the show. Would you agree? 

I’d say so, yes. I think Jack, the writer, is working very hard to embed characters who happen to have disabilities into all his work and sort of role-modelling as a writer, that there doesn’t need to be a disability or deaf-centric plot. These are characters that offer new dimensions and richness to the whole piece.

(There’s also a solicitor who happens to be a wheelchair user, and, again, her disability is neither remarked open nor important to the plot. The same goes for the race of the two or three ethnic-minority characters in the show.)

Q: What are the next projects you’re working on?

There are a few things lined up for next year which I’m really excited about, although I can’t say anything more just now. I’m also writing now – with some projects in development. I hope that The Accident encourages other writers to see possibilities for introducing more disabled characters into their scripts. Because those opportunities are vital and very much cherished by us disabled actors struggling to make a career out of this.

Q: Finally, any advice for young deaf actors trying to make it?

If you don’t ask, you don’t get. A little bit of gumption is needed in this business. Seek out and appreciate the opportunities – to develop yourself as actors, to build relationships. Don’t be afraid to ask questions – no matter how silly or simple they might seem. And remember, there’s a community around you – you need toughness and resilience to make it in this industry, but there’s always people around you sharing that experience. Lean on them if you need to.

Photos: Channel 4