‘I decided either I’m going to live wonderfully or not at all.’ Eloise Pennycott on her journey as a writer and actor (BSL)

Interview and photography by Charlie Swinbourne

I meet Eloise Pennycott, who is an actor and writer, in the bar at the National Theatre. This is a place of great significance for Eloise, because at the age of 17, she had her first play Barrier(s) performed here, the first play produced by the National Theatre predominantly in sign language.

Eloise is now 19 and since then she’s appeared as an actor in the CBBC series Phoenix Rise and is now one of four writers on the High tide production More… Ghost Stories by Candlelight which will tour the east of England in October before being performed at the Globe Theatre.

I remember meeting Eloise briefly on the night that Barrier(s) was first performed, two years ago. The play, a 45 minute story of a romance between a hearing character and a deaf cochlear implant user was witty, it felt fresh and it was also funny, with the audience laughing throughout. Eloise orders a Coke and we sit down to chat.

I ask her how it felt, having lots of prominent deaf people coming up to her after the performance of Barrier(s), telling her that they loved the play? ‘They were all like my celebrities, people I’d seen perform or on TV. I burst into tears afterwards, it was so exciting!’

Eloise tells me that in the same week as the play was first performed at the National, she also got her acting role in Phoenix Rise, and was also playing the character of Imogen in the play Cymbeline with Shakespeare’s Globe’s Youth Theatre just along London’s South Bank. It felt like everything was happening at once.

I ask her about her journey to that point and Eloise tells me about how she lost her hearing at the age of 11. She had gone to the Ear Nose and Throat clinic for a nose issue, and found out that she had mild deafness. She then lost more and more of her hearing over the next two years.

Did she have any sense before then that she might be deaf? ‘It made sense,’ she says, ‘because the year before I remember doing yoga, and the yoga teacher told us to close our eyes, and I remember thinking ‘well how will I hear?’

I always think it must be a lot harder to lose your hearing than to be born deaf (as I was). What was her experience like? Eloise says: ‘I don’t remember a lot between the age of 11 and 15. There’s a big gap in my memory. I took things five minutes by five minutes, I wasn’t taking anything in. I was really depressed, and I had no role models.’

During this time though, there was one moment that stayed with her. ‘What really changed things was seeing Nadia Nadarajah on stage at the Globe in Hamlet, when I was 12. It stayed in my mind – that’s one job a deaf person can do.’

A transformation in Eloise’s outlook came during the lockdown in 2020. She tells me that it gave her a lot of time to think. She was 15, and she said to herself ‘either I’m going to live wonderfully or not at all. I decided I was going to be cool and happy and an interesting person.’

Eloise had learned to sign because there was a deaf boy in her year at school, who had cochlear implants and used communication support. During free periods, his CSW taught her to sign and Eloise became fluent in BSL by the time she was 13.

But she hadn’t yet connected with other deaf people her own age. Then she joined Deafinitely Youth Theatre, a residential acting course run by Deafinitely Theatre. There, she realised how strong her signing skills had become. ‘After a few days, I used my voice and an interpreter told me they didn’t realise I could speak, which was the most validating thing anyone has ever said to me!’

I ask whether writing and acting was always part of her life, and she tells me that as a child, she would act out Dr Seuss stories with her mum and force her to act in them! She continues: ‘Reading and storytelling was always a part of my life. I read so many books, and my parents read to us every night. And I was always a very dramatic person!’

Eloise broke into acting when she joined an acting agency she had heard about from a family friend. Soon she was having lots of auditions and got a role in a big-budget drama called The Power being shot in South Africa, which was female-led and involved using Russian Sign Language. She spent two weeks on set with her mother there too. ’It was an amazing experience, I loved it’ she says.

Her next big role was on Phoenix Rise, appearing in around 30 episodes, giving her invaluable experience of continuing drama, spending 6 months at a time on set. What did it teach her? ‘It was really exciting to live with a character for such a long time, and also to make my implant part of the show and dress it up for TV.’

Now there’s More… Ghost Stories by Candlelight, which is produced by High Tide and will tour the east of England before being shown at Shakespeare’s Globe. I ask her to tell me more. ‘There’s four writers each writing one story each, which come together to form one play. I’ve spent a lot of time researching it! Each story is a monologue, with two actors, one playing music and the other delivering the monologue. My play will be 12 minutes long and I’ve written five drafts so far!’

The play will be accessible to a deaf audience through captions at six of the venues. Eloise will also appear at two post-show question and answer sessions which will have Speech To Text (STTR) and BSL interpretation.

She continues: ‘It’s nerve-wracking because I want it to be scary, I want people to watch it and enjoy it. It’s fun and different. It’s nice working with three other writers, and it’s amazing to see how we fit together.’ She’s also positive about working with the theatre company High Tide, explaining that ‘they ask questions, they ask why,’ being open to what she wanted rather than making assumptions.

Eloise outside the National Theatre on London’s Southbank, September 2024

I ask Eloise what’s next for her. She tells me that after Ghost Stories she will be working on The Greensleeves Project, which is a research project which will examine and recreate every item of clothing and gifts given to Lady Greensleeves in the famous Tudor song. She will be playing Lady Greensleeves and says she’s ‘very excited to wear so many beautiful clothes!’

Finally, I ask what her ambitions for the future are, since she’s already achieved so much at the age of 19. Eloise smiles and adds: ‘I’ve decided I’m going to win an Olivier for best play by the time I’m 24. I’m also going to be the artistic director of the Globe and the National Theatre. If I say it enough times then I believe it will happen!’ I wouldn’t bet against it.

Interview and photography by Charlie Swinbourne. All rights reserved and copyright protected. No usage without permission. Check out more of Charlie’s photography on his website or on Instagram.