Review: You Told Me to Wash and Clean My Ears

You Told Me to Wash and Clean My Ears

Project Arts Centre

****

"I was the first hearing child born to a deaf couple who used Irish sign language as the primary mode of communication," writes Amanda Coogan, in the broadsheet "newspaper" given to the audience. The next time we hear from Coogan, she's perched metres high atop what looks like a rocky mountain . . . or is it her gown? Are they handprints across the bottom?

Everything about this performance is dreamlike, trance-like. “C’mere till I tell you a story,” whispers a voice off-stage, as slowly, slowly, marchers in paint-spattered coat-tails begin to appear on stage, two or three at first, then six, 10, 20.

In 1972 the deaf community, institutionalised and marginalised, came together to protest the shooting dead of deaf-mute Eamonn McDevitt by the British army in Strabane, Co Tyrone. The protest, writes Coogan, “was a formal affair. The rules of the march were laid out by the leaders: dress well, no talking or making noise and walk two abreast.” That formality, on stage, can be repetitive and monotonous, but, then, that’s the point.

This is a quiet, beautiful spectacle and an intriguing collaboration, if not always accessible for nonusers of Irish sign language. (Arrive early to peruse the newspaper, which will greatly enhance the viewing experience.) Ends Sep 20