BSL Vlog: Deafinitely Theatre’s Paula Garfield on the importance of dementia play ’The Promise’ and its cinema screening

Header photograph: Becky Bailey

English Transcript:

Hi I’m Paula Garfield, the artistic director of Deafinitely Theatre. I have been working on a show, directing ‘The Promise’ which I co-wrote along with Melissa Mostyn.

‘The Promise’ tells the story of a deaf Mother who has dementia and we see how this affects the rest of her family, particularly her husband and son. It has been inspired from personally meeting many deaf individuals who care for their deaf relatives who are living with dementia. I was able to chat to these people, ask questions about their experiences and their stories impacted me greatly.

Many carers have said the role of being a carer to someone who is deaf and has dementia is incredibly lonely, with not enough support. I discovered that the mainstream organisation Alzheimers Society – who support people through dementia – now has funding and projects aimed at supporting deaf people too.

However one main issue is that there are no care homes specifically for deaf people living with dementia across the entire UK. There are one or two care homes for deaf people, but these are not primarily aimed at those with dementia. I was really shocked to discover this.

It reminded me of my experience with my own Father. He was hearing but became deaf later and also lost his sight and was unable to walk. My Father passed away at the age of 56 and I had so many questions for my Mother – what happened, why did he pass away?

My Mother explained he had a brain disease and told me how his brain couldn’t remember or hold on to things anymore.

Over the years and researching for this play The Promise, I realised that dementia is what would be classed as a brain disease. It is possible my Father had some kind of dementia though I do not know which type as there are actually over 100 different types of dementia! There are five most common types of dementia which include Alzheimers and Vascular Dementia.

I have learnt so much through my research. Also, as I discovered that there are so many deaf carers experiencing loneliness, I feel it is of utmost importance that we become more aware about how we can offer our own support.

The Promise has been performed at Birmingham Rep, HOME Manchester, Newcastle’s Northern Stage then finally London’s Lyric Hammersmith Theatre. This tour was hugely successful with great response from the audience.

We have now filmed our performance and transformed it to a film which will be performed at a cinema; Kiln cinema in North London. I feel it is imperative that we urgently think about this topic and the future care of deaf people with dementia. We need to have conversations about this, we cannot assume it won’t happen to us.

I hope you will join us to watch The Promise at the cinema on Monday 21st October at 7pm. I hope to see you there!