The sound of deafness

Tribes tells the story of Billy, the only deaf member of his cliquey, snobby and belligerent family, who introduces his new, partially deaf girlfriend Sylvia, who then helps Billy see that his family ignores him.

Julian Meyrick returns to MTC to direct Alison Bell, star of the hit ABC TV series Laid, as Sylvia, alongside Luke Watts making his main stage debut as Billy.

Billy’s family taught him to lip-read but never taught him sign language; nor did they introduce him to the deaf community. To protect Billy from being labelled as handicapped, they raised him as a hearing person.

When Sylvia teaches Billy sign language, he instantly finds a community he can join, one he thinks is better than his family, whose noisy discourse around the dinner table often leaves Billy excluded. The family is bowled over when Billy finally decides to leave home in protest. Fearing a genuine threat to their tightly-knit tribe, his parents and siblings are forced to reconsider their beliefs.

Nina Raine’s play blends speech and sign language, and goes beyond the portrayal of deafness and the deaf community by situating the drama within the family unit, provoking many questions about language, parenting, belonging, community and the nature of communication.

Robyn Nevin, a member of MTC’s Season 2012 Programming Team says it was a simple decision to put this play into the season.

“While I was performing in Apologia at night, I was reading recommended plays in the interval. One interval, I opened up Tribes and it grabbed me instantly. Honestly, it was hard to put it down and go on stage again. It had that vicious, delicious writing you find in the toughest comedies, so smart, fierce and heartbreaking. I found it absolutely compelling. You look for plays that bring linguistic sophistication to the theatre and this is such a highly articulate piece,” she says.

English playwright, author and director Nina Raine’s highly anticipated second play Tribes premiered at the Royal Court Theatre in 2010, enjoying a sell-out season. Tribes earned Raine a 2011 Laurence Olivier Award nomination for Best New Production.

Tribes, MTC Sumner Theatre, 4 February to 14 March. Captioned performances Saturday 25 February at 4pm and Monday 5 March at 6.30 pm.

http://www.mtc.com.au/