About 60 children from the twin deaf schools in Cabra, Dublin - St Mary's for girls, St Joseph's for boys - attended a groundbreaking theatrical performance last week in the Ark, the children's cultural centre in Dublin. The play was "translated" into Irish Sign Language by an interpreter who joined the actors on-stage.
The Ark's production of Charles Way's Playing from the Heart tells the story of Scottish percussionist Evelyn Glennie, from ages eight to 18, as she becomes profoundly deaf but persists with her dream of becoming a professional musician. For this one-off performance, interpreter Amanda Coogan was a sixth cast member, even dancing along as she signed the lyrics for the deaf audience.
The children, aged 8 to 13, "got an awful lot of it", said St Mary's teacher Mary Steen. Since the performance, they have been enthusiastically talking, writing and drawing pictures about it. "They love music and drama," Steen said. "But they don't get much opportunity to see signed theatre."
The subject matter of this play made it particularly appealing. Like Glennie, "most of the children come from hearing families," Steen said. Although Glennie herself does not sign and does not like being labelled a "deaf musician", she is "quite a rolemodel in her determination to succeed".
Playing from the Heart, without sign language, is at the Garter Lane Arts Centre, Waterford, this Wednesday, Thursday and Friday at 11 a.m. and on Thursday at 8 p.m.
