Rinkoo Barpaga: How I’ve prepared for taking my performance art to France (BSL)

I feel honoured that I have been invited to perform at the Clin d’Oeil festival.

I never thought that I would become a performer, because I never saw any deaf artists in Birmingham, Derby and Newcastle when I was growing up to serve as role models.

During my childhood, my family couldn’t afford to go to the theatre. My dad worked as a black cab driver, and I remember him having an advertisement for ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’ on the side of his cab. He managed to get free tickets to the show for the family to see the show at Birmingham Hippodrome. It was my first time going to see a live show, and it was an incredible experience. I recognised lots of the actors from TV shows such as ‘Home and Away’. That was my only experience of the theatre as a child.

I started learning sign language in 1988, and there were no role models of sign language users in the theatre at that time, so I never pictured myself using sign language on stage. However, I knew I had a talent for it and that my performances were enjoyed by the deaf community, be it comedy or storytelling at school, college, work, the pub, or football club.

After all my hard work in performance, starting with my first stand-up comedy show in New York City in 2013, I began with a 5-minute set in America. My show grew to 10 minutes, then 15 minutes in Soho, London.

When I developed an hour-long show of ‘Made in India Britain’ at Birmingham Rep theatre as part of their Foundry course, I honestly didn’t think that this project would become so successful.

I was very lucky that I was invited to perform at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2022 as part of an initiative to encourage performances from underrepresented groups – as a performer of colour – at the Pleasance Theatre. There was advertising everywhere at the Edinburgh Fringe for hundreds of shows, and so I felt a lot of pressure. I remember seeing an enormous sign advertising my show, the same size as a billboard, and thought ‘Uh oh… that’s massive!’ I was in a restaurant just paying for my food when I looked up and saw my own face looking back at me, much bigger than lifesize! I would see people looking at me, nudging each other and whispering. I felt uncertain when I compared myself to others who were performing.

When I was taking part in the Fringe Festival, it was my first experience of performing full-time for a month. I had no experience of performing on a daily basis and as ‘Made in India Britain’ is a one-man show, it is particularly physically demanding. A few people warned me to take it steady or I would risk injury. However, I was so excited by the opportunity that I continued to give it 110%. By the third week, my body started to feel the strain. I pulled my right shoulder, injured my left wrist, and hurt both my left knee and right ankle. I reached a point where I was taking painkillers before every show to help me get through it. After the festival, my body took a long time to recover – around a year, despite extensive physiotherapy in both the UK and Switzerland.

This follows a hugely successful run at Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2022, followed by a national tour of my one-man show. It has been a dream of mine for a long time to perform at the festival in France. I have attended the Clin d’Oeil festival previously, most recently in 2011 with friends, but I wasn’t performing then. It was a wonderful experience and a joy to meet so many talented people from all over the world, together in one place. I have wanted to go again since then but have struggled to afford to go due to limited work opportunities. Thirteen years later, I’m finally going again this summer – because I have been invited to perform!

I need to prepare for the Clin d’Oeil festival, where I’ll be performing in International Sign instead of British Sign Language. This means I have to adapt my show by using iconic signing, which combines mime and iconic signs. It’s challenging because I have to mentally translate the show from my first language, BSL, into International Sign while performing naturally. The show’s appeal lies in the beauty of sign language, and I want it to be just as powerful in IS as it is in BSL.

‘Made in India Britain’ centres on themes of British culture and politics, and I am not sure how well this will translate for an international audience. For example, one story talks about Enoch Powell, and I don’t know if an international audience will be familiar with him. Commentary on British politics may get lost. This will be a real challenge for me, adapting both the language and content of the show to achieve the same impact for the audience. British audiences have enjoyed the show, which sold well across 21 venues on tour. I hope to repeat this success in France.

I am so grateful to all the people of colour who have supported my work, particularly Daniel Bailey (dramaturg and former director), Kam Deo (BSL consultant), Tyrone Huggins (director), Mathias Andre (assistant director/voiceover-actor), as well as the support of Racheal Veazy (producer).

I want to pay particular credit to my voiceover actor, Mathias Andre. Mathias was supposed to be the assistant director for my show, but the original voiceover actor had to pull out of my show because he struggled with the voiceover. Mathias bravely volunteered to provide the voiceover instead. “Do you know BSL?” I asked him, in surprise. “No!” he said – but he was up for the challenge. With only a week to go until Edinburgh Fringe Festival, it was a huge undertaking for Mathias to be ready in time.

After the shows, many people approached me to tell me how much they had loved Mathias’ voiceover. I’m so glad he was brave enough to give it a go, despite not knowing sign language. He has become more and more familiar with the language as we have worked together.

Now that we are taking ‘Made in India Britain’ to France, Mathias has once again volunteered to provide voiceover for the show, this time in French! I can only imagine how he feels, as someone willing to step up to a challenge – I really commend him. This will be a first for both of us – the first time for me performing in International Sign, and Mathias voicing over in French. I also want to praise the wonderful work of my director Tyrone, and the whole team who brought this show to life, particularly Kam and Daniel.

Whilst growing up, I learned sign language from people of colour in my hometown of Birmingham, at Braidwood School and then at Derby College for Deaf People. I want to preserve my raw, native BSL (and thank you to Kam Deo for pushing me to showcase the beautiful artistry of British Sign Language). I am so excited and ready to show the world at Clin d’Oeil the quality of deaf British work.

As I reflect on my upbringing since the 1980s, I recall facing a lot of ableism and a prevailing attitude of ‘Deaf people can’t do that’. However, my aspiration for the Clin d’Oeil festival is to inspire British deaf artists through my show, so that they feel empowered to create and present their own work. I’m incredibly thankful to the Clin d’Oeil festival and David De Keyzer for this incredible opportunity.

Rinkoo would also like to thank Rachael Veazy (producer) and Tom Clutterbuck (stage manager) for their support on his project.