“a punk protest, a defiant act in an often ableist industry”
‘Light and playful’ with direction from Jenny Sealey, this is a fresh take on Shakespeare’s tragedy from Graeae.
The process is performative in Jenny Sealey’s take on Shakespeare, with Deaf and disabled theatre company Graeae’s central commitment to the aesthetics of access integrated at every point. The play begins with a group of actors gathered in a dystopian waiting room, ready to be called forth for their auditions. As their identifying characteristics are announced over the tannoy – height, gender, neurodivergence, beverage preferences – they come to realise that they are all disabled performers, aside from two integrated BSL interpreters (Craig Painting and Irmina St Catherine). Frustrated, they start to speculate on the star-crossed lovers’ casting and all too typical limitations – “maybe it’s another disabled crowd scene”, “well, you won’t be Romeo” – before deciding to take matters into their own hands: they will choose their own roles.
Sealey makes excellent use of Shakespeare North’s democratic, in-the-round stage to emphasise this metatheatricality, while creating an accessible space. The backstage area is exposed, with a rail for Abbii Sutcliffe’s costumes: glossy red bomber jackets for the Montagues, and blue for the Capulets. Tim Meacock’s set is pared down to benches and neon posts, and scenes changes are described by the cast. It’s a neat concept that works well with Sealey’s crystal-clear reworking of the play, though it doesn’t always perfectly balance the practical and the poetic.
While the multitasking cast illuminates the production’s politics, the overall tone is light and the playfulness of the cast is infectious. Yet we know so little about the hopeful actors in the framing device and their interrelationships that we don’t get a strong sense of what this representation means to them. It feels a missed opportunity for deeper connection – to truly understand what the characters have done, in taking back power from the audition room in a punk protest, a defiant act in an often ableist industry.
The fourth-wall breaking also makes it difficult to invest in Shakespeare’s love story. But there are notable exceptions. The best is the dual casting of Petre Dobre and Ciaran Forrest as Romeos, against Shreya M Patel and Cherie Gordon’s Juliets. Both couples perform simultaneously in BSL and speech, occasionally overlapping. This fluidity creates exciting, dynamic stage pictures, a highlight being the meltdown of Dobre’s Romeo at Juliet’s death; he’s broken by grief. There is drama, too, in the two Romeos buoying each other up before the Capulet ball, and in the Juliets embracing, entwining hands as they learn of their loves’ banishment. Such moments allow the tragedy to shine.
Photos by Patch Dolan
Read the online review here