Wordless wonders

A strange night at the Soho. Before curtain-up the place was crowded with people excitedly conversing with each other yet there was practically no noise. They were deaf. Signed conversation requires full and constant eye contact, which makes it more intense, intimate and animated than our conversation, and as I watched the deaf exchanging their artful, fascinating hand-dances I felt an enormous pang of envy. What a club to belong to! And this turned out to be the theme of the play. John and Alison, both deaf, have a daughter who needs a mechanical implant to improve her hearing. Alison is keen but John fears that the doctors are plotting to ruin his family. As the child’s hearing improves she’ll lose interest in signing and will effectively be stolen from her parents by the forces of ‘normality’. An unusual and challenging theme: a loving father determined to protect his child’s disability.