In an industry that asks deaf people to speak up or be overlooked, Deafinitely Theatre creates a space where accessibility is the foundation, not the afterthought.
It’s 2002, and all 75 seats at the Gate Theatre in Notting Hill are sold out. The smallest ‘off-West End’ venue sits atop the Prince Albert pub, and a queue snakes around the building on Pembridge Road, with punters hopeful to nab a ticket on the door.
A cast and crew of deaf theatre professionals await curtain-up on the premiere of their first show, Deaf History. With decades of freelance acting experience under her belt, Artistic Director Paula Garfield knows she’s on the precipice of something great.
“I knew our seats would be full because I knew we were the only ones providing it.”
Paula had been approached by Arts Council England with a small pot of funding to put on a one-off, deaf-led production, performed entirely in BSL as part of a scheme to break barriers within the theatre industry. After the premiere at the Gate Theatre, Paula’s cast and crew did a three-night stint at the Camden People’s Theatre, selling out venues across the board. Just as she had anticipated, it was a hit.
“At the end of the project, I did my evaluation for the Arts Council. They were astounded that there was in fact an audience.”
“I was like: ‘Well, yeah of course there is! The deaf community haven’t had access to theatre in years.”
And thus, in securing the continued support of the Arts Council, Deafinitely Theatre was born.
In the decades before founding Deafinitely Theatre, Paula had a long yet challenging career as a freelance actor. She worked with the likes of Octagon and Unicorn theatres alongside a lot of school touring and theatre education.
As a deaf person, Paula found that roles were scarce, particularly for a sign language user with no speech. When she did land a job, she would often be the only sign language user in the cast, leaving her unable to socialise with others in the production, and constantly having her voice overlooked.
“The other actors would always be very enthused to learn sign language, then after a few weeks their interest would lag and there I’d be again, pretty much isolated within the company.”
Paula would often play deaf characters within productions designed for hearing audiences. Short snippets of the play would be told in BSL, but directors did not set out to create a fully accessible play for deaf communities.
She described her experience with these companies, saying that she’d “become more and more frustrated because, you know, I wanted deaf audiences to come and see the show. So many would say no because the show wasn’t entirely accessible… We [deaf actors] were just tokenistic.”
With Deafinitely Theatre, Paula was determined to do things differently for both deaf actors and deaf audiences. Authenticity is integral to her means of production; everybody who works for the company – both on and off the stage – has BSL fluency. Those who have approached Deafinitely from a mainstream theatre background are guaranteed to be entering a safe space.
“To be placed in a deaf theatre, those actors are so much freer. They’re in a space where everyone has a shared language and culture. There’s no extra burden of having to educate others before even doing what they are being paid to do.”
“They’re just there to express themselves creatively without the barriers that they would face in a mainstream theatre,” Paula says.
In its 20-year history, Deafinitely has reached over 35,000 deaf people through its work and has produced more than 40 productions. 1 in 7 people in the UK are deaf or hard of hearing, and around 156,000 are BSL users, yet the professional and creative opportunities designed for people in the community are limited.
Others have tried and failed to replicate Deafinitely’s approach, yet the company remains the industry leader for deaf-led theatre in the UK. Paula believes that this is down to a lack of authenticity within hearing-led productions: “Having our stories told by hearing people is never going to work.”
Being a theatre-making trailblazer has its rewards, but life at the top can be a lonely place.
Of her career, Paula says that having “two children at the same time as running the company… it was quite overwhelming for me to maintain the drive. I felt like I had imposter syndrome a lot in the early days and developed depression for a period of time because of the pressure we were under.”
“There have maybe been three occasions I’ve said: ‘Right, I’ve had enough, I’m shutting it down, it’s too much stress’.”
Deaf people who use BSL are disproportionately affected by mental health struggles – 40% report having a mental illness compared to 25% of the hearing population. Not choosing or not being able to use spoken language can feel incredibly lonely, especially when a majority of hearing people do not attempt to learn sign language.
“Medical professionals say to us: ‘You need to fit into society’. Well, hang on, why can’t society just make space for us? They say: ‘You must learn to speak in order to achieve’, but that’s not the case.”
For over twenty years, Deafinitely Theatre has remained steadfast in its ethos: the deaf community needn’t change to suit the creative industry, because the industry can – and will – change to include deaf people.
Amongst their greatest achievements as a company was an adaptation of Love’s Labour’s Lost, performed onstage at Shakespeare’s Globe in 2012. It was of immense interest to deaf actors and audiences who, until that point, hadn’t been able to access the work of Shakespeare. “Some of the actors have continued to work for the Royal Shakespeare Company, with the Globe, so I know that work had a huge influence on our community.”
Onstage representation can be life-changing, Paula says, particularly for deaf children born into hearing families. Even if they are able to communicate with their family using BSL, they miss out on that sense of belonging which comes from seeing their condition mirrored in another person.
“That’s why it is so important to advocate for sign language, to tell deaf stories, to understand that deaf communities and deaf people have lives”.
This year will see Deafinitely adapt BARRIER(S) by Eloise Pennycott, an emotional love story between two women: one deaf, one hearing. It will be their first time working with a deaf writer, “which is fundamental to us telling our stories in our own language,” says Paula. They will also be touring with a revival of The Vagina Monologues, told in BSL with English subtitles. Audiences will see ten deaf women and non-binary people deliver a series of funny, emotive and heartfelt reflections on female sexuality and womanhood.
“It’s going to be a new experience for hearing audiences as well,” says Paula, “everyone can access it… Sign language has no limitations really.”
Featured Image courtesy of Becky Bailey.