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Engaging storytelling beautifully performed to include deaf and neurodiverse audiences.
Summary
Rating
Good
Experiencing a show performed for and enjoyed by deaf audience is a treat in its own right. Jenny Sealey, playing herself, does not attempt to make comedy out of her deafness, but makes comedy while being deaf and not letting that get in the way of her style: a big difference and one to celebrate.
Jenny is not a stand-up comedian by trade: her day job is artistic director of disabled-led theatre company Graeae, with a track record of creating new acting and delivery techniques that empower disabled and neurodivergent artists and include the most diverse audiences.
She uses her first solo show to practice what she preaches and treats her audience to a polite introduction to how it feels to be deaf at a dinner party, a family gathering or a larger party by miming the struggle to follow parallel conversation, and through apt use of muffled and garbled sound effects. This segues into a gentle, but very effective, prescription of things one ought to do and things one must avoid when speaking to a deaf person: one little lesson that will stay with me for good.
Jenny also uses all the tricks in her own book throughout the show. She is supported by a British Sign Interpreter (Jeni Draper) on stage, who performs alongside her as a trusted, but silent friend. Her own appearance and that of her interpreter are audio-described; all the props on the stage are listed and described; and, last but not least, a large screen, clearly visible above the stage set from all areas of the theatre, allows her words to appear in real time.
The story she has to tell is not an easy one to hear. She calls it a story of family secrets, but it is also, painfully, a story of child abuse. She attempts to make light of her own past – and some of her “family secrets” do, indeed, lend themselves to shared hilarity, (the possibility of being adopted by Swedish lesbians might have given her a higher chance of acting in Scandi-crime drama). But for the most part one is entranced by this show, in awe of a strong personality, who refuses to remain a victim of the stereotypes encountered by “deafies” and who has bent her life to her own design but whose scars are still open.
Awe and comedy are odd bedfellows, however. Jenny’s storytelling is powerfully engaging and, at times, gets a grunt of disbelief or the occasional guffaw out of her audience, but the label of comedy act does not quite fit her first solo work: epic storytelling is a more appropriate definition of her brand of acting. Jenny is a master of telling stories in such a way that you forget that disability is even there, be it in the audience or on stage, and we certainly need so much more of it.
This show leaves you thinking: Why don’t we do this as default? Why don’t we all simply enjoy a great BSL interpreter on stage along with a large screen with surtitles? And, importantly, it leaves you wondering: What great stories will Jenny tell next?
Produced by: Graeae Productions
Written by: Jenny Sealey, Mike Kenny
Directed by: Lee Lyford
Captioning and Video Designer: Jonah Sealey Braverman
British Sign Language Interpreter: Jeni Draper
Self Raising is currently playing at the Soho Theatre until 17th February.
Then it continues on tour across the UK.
Further details and booking can be found here.
