Deaf playwright and actor Eloise Pennycott on her new touring play Barrier(s) with Definitely Theatre (BSL)

This is a really exciting moment for you Eloise! How are you feeling right now, to have Barrier(s) reach the stage as a touring production?

Thank you! I am so thrilled that Barrier(s) gets to tour and hit a couple of big cities other than London – Manchester especially, where I went to my first gay club a few years ago. I’m hoping we’ll be able to reach even more people with this tour, and I’m so looking forward to catching up with some old friends along the way. It feels quite special to finish up with a good two and a half weeks at Camden People’s Theatre, exactly the sort of place where I had imagined Barrier(s) being performed in the first instance.

How has the play developed since it was first performed at the National Theatre?

People who saw the original version will find the meta theatrics and overall tone of the piece preserved, but this time we get to do a much closer deep-dive into the relationship of Katie and Alana, and the complexities of a deaf-hearing relationship. Also, the political world of the play has become much more refined and credible to the political world today – Barrier(s) now is about the economy of being deaf or disabled which, for the most part is rooted in reality rather than dystopia, until the later moments of the narrative. Deaf and disabled politics are feeling scary to me in many ways at the moment, and theatre is my way of distilling that until I am able to parse it through the lens of fictional characters. As much as the difference between being 17 and being 20 isn’t the greatest gulf and I am still certainly at the start of my career, it is really satisfying to return to this play with three extra years of life and playwriting experience under my belt, and the immense support of Deafinitely Theatre and Rio Matchett: dramaturgy queen.

How personal is the play to you?

I don’t like precious about my writing, which means that I tend to avoid being too indulgent with my personal experiences – I need distance to allow the play to become a sharp and well-rounded narrative in its own right. That being said, all good writing has little personal details, and it has been fun for me to drop easter eggs in Barrier(s) for those closest to me to spot: a recipe that my best friend and I had at a dinner party, a reference to my parents’ engagement, a faux pas that my partner made on our first date, even a piece of knitting that I worked on myself (spot the prop in the show!)

What do you think audiences will take away from it?

The energy of this play now is so exciting and galvanising, carried wonderfully by our cast Zoë McWhinney and Em Prendergast. I hope audiences will take away a sense of resilience and assurance in their self-worth, the determination to fight the fight to be heard, and also just the satisfaction of a good, lovely love story.

How important do you think it is to have dramas combining LGBTQ+ themes with deafness – as it’s so rare to see both explored together?

Whilst queerness and deafness are my main areas of interest with intersectionality, I really think there should be more stacking of unique character traits on the whole. It is imperative as it is to have appropriate representation of people from all walks of life, and there are also unique dramatic narratives that come with intersectionality that I feel often aren’t explored. One such example in Barrier(s) is around IVF – there you have the two prongs of pregnancy for lesbian couples and pregnancy with a hereditary deafness – which presents a really knotty narrative complex which is dramatically satisfying to unpack. The more unique traits a character can have as well as deafness, the richer an otherwise straightforward narrative can become.

I’d love to see more producers in mainstream media taking that step with stories featuring characters who have more than one basic character trait like deafness. I’d like to mention here how well done I thought the storyline with Jared Jones was in series 15 of Waterloo Road – which I believe you are owed some credit for, Charlie – it was relatively new to me to see a deaf character who is manipulative and abusive human being, with both traits being developed in complement and subtly enough to reach a really satisfying and well-paced conclusion. I want to see more producers acknowledge that deafness as a character trait doesn’t have to become the central point – by adding it in you get greater authenticity and representation and more complexity in a narrative. There are so many stories where well-written deafness could elevate a character. Why are we sleeping on that right now?

What’s next for you?

I am busy! What a fab thing to be able to say in this industry and at such a young age. Whilst following Barrier(s) on tour around the UK, I’ll also be finding good tea places in Birmingham, Manchester and Camden to hole up in and get to work on writing my Spring 2026 touring show. That’s being announced early next year, so do keep an eye out.

I am hoping I’ll have time to return to some passion projects soon, including 1838, which was conceived as a short piece for the Almeida Young Company that I am now expanding into a full-length play. I am also keen to get back into some acting, as that has ended up in the backseat a little bit whilst I’ve been prioritising Barrier(s) and my next commission.

Past that? Who knows! I’m in my early 20s, living in London, at the start of a career that I love – I’m excited to let life surprise me over the next few years.

Interview and photography by Charlie Swinbourne

For more information about Barrier(s), click here to go to the Definitely Theatre website.