BSL video: Emery Hunter tells us about brand new show “Can Bears Ski?” by The Pied Piper Theatre Company and Deafinitely Theatre

The Pied Piper Theatre Company and Deafinitely Theatre have joined together to present a world premiere of their new show ‘Can Bears Ski?’ based on the book written by Raymond Antrobus and illustrated by Polly Dunbar. 

The book has been adapted for the stage by Tina Williams of The Pied Piper Theatre Company and is currently on tour until the 24th February 2024. The play is accessible to both deaf and hearing families and features an integrated cast.

We asked hard of hearing actress Emery Hunter to tell us more about her role in the play as Little Bear, who goes on a journey to learn how there are many ways to communicate love, and to find your place in the world. 

Please find a BSL video below by Emery or read on for the English transcript!

To answer your first question, my name is Emery (sign name) I’m an actor from Scotland working with Deafinitely Theatre and Pied Piper Theatre company on our new show. I have worked in integrated theatre before but this is my first time working on a children’s show, so it’s a really new experience for me.

I’ve learnt so much throughout this experience, especially working with Paula (Garfield) – she reminds me that the audience is aimed at children who might not have seen a theatre show before, and also may not have seen British Sign Language before too. So it’s important to make sure I perform clearly so the story comes across clear too.

It’s been amazing for me personally to learn how to pace the performance to really allow the audience – especially children – to become absorbed in the story. It’s quite different from traditional theatre where you have the stage and the audience separate, it may be signed or spoken but there’s a kind of separation between the audience and the stage. In this show the children are really close up so you have to really welcome them into the world of the show.

Which character do I play? I’m Little Bear! It’s a really important character because the show follows Little Bear’s experience in life – Little Bear starts to understand their own deaf identity and the audience can follow this journey through Little Bear’s experience.

What’s the play about? Well, as I’ve said it follows Little Bear’s emotional journey and what’s particularly exciting about the show is that it shows his perspective.

For example, in the show when Little Bear doesn’t understand what’s being spoken, the audience experience the same misunderstanding. The hearing actor who is speaking is speaking gibberish such as ‘ ba ba ba’ which means the audience has the same experience as Little Bear!

I think that’s really important as it helps people to understand what it feels like to misunderstand or what it feels like to struggle to pick up information. I think this is really interesting to show as I’ve never seen a children’s show performed from the perspective of a deaf character.

Who is the show aimed at? Those aged over 3 years of age and their family. We’ve finished rehearsals now but my absolutely favourite time during rehearsals was when the set was complete. Before we had the set we had to imagine what it would look like, how the stage and setting would portray the beautiful book which was written by Raymond Antrobus and illustrated by Polly Dunbar.

To see Polly’s world created on the stage was truly amazing, I didn’t need to just flick through the pages of the book to see what it looked like, I could see it on the set and it was amazing.

Why should people come and watch the play? Well, I feel this show is really different to other children’s shows. It’s really about the deaf experience and I think the audience will really love Little Bear and the journey that Little Bear goes on through the story.

It’s really easy for people to feel a connection to Little Bear because – as I mentioned before – it’s really about his perspective so they can actually see what he goes through and think ‘aw, it’s difficult for Little Bear’ or ‘oh, Little Bear likes that!’

So I think the audience will really connect with how confident Little Bear is and how fearless he is. When he realises that he is deaf, he’s not afraid at all! He sees his deafness as just part of him, he completely accepts it and has so much love for himself and is so confident as a result of that

Photo credit: Fergus Ford

For more information or to view tour dates see: https://www.deafinitelytheatre.co.uk/can-bears-ski-uktour