Dance is a vital part of Follow the Signs. As the audience enters the two members of the cast along with the director are bopping away to a live set from DJ Gaia Ahuja (G33).
Follow the Signs is clearly a labour of love. Harry Jardine not only co-scripts and directs, he also provides the on-stage speaking voice of his co-writer, performer and choreographer Chris Fonseca. Gaia Ahuja also steps from behind the mixing desk to take on voice duties. The show is heavily dependent upon technology, with Kirsty Housley’s videos and captions projected onto the slate-grey rear wall to illustrate British Sign Language (BSL) and communicate the frustration and disorientation experienced by the characters. Unfortunately, tonight there is a major technical glitch which stops the show for several minutes and probably plays havoc with the filming which is underway.
Chris Fonseca becomes deaf at two years of age after contracting meningitis. Not being from a wealthy background, his mother is unable to afford BSL courses and so cannot communicate with her son when he learns to sign. A cochlear implant restores enough of Chris’s hearing to enable him to hear music but not to distinguish the lyrics.
He encounters Raffie Julien, a mixed-race deaf woman who also has an implant and shares his enthusiasm for music and dance. But Chris has always been self-conscious about his deafness to the extent he is reluctant to use BSL or show his implant in public. His inability to believe Raffie might have had similar experiences to his own and so understand his feelings risks breaking up their friendship.
Identity is a major theme of the play. Chris is brutalised by school bullies because of his race and deafness and becomes emotionally stunted as a result. Raffie is uncertain of her identity, being of mixed race she is unsure if she qualifies to join a ‘Black Lives Matter’ group and her ability to speak without impediment makes her hesitant about her position in the deaf community.
The impact of different styles of teaching is emphasised. Both characters have speech therapists but, while Raffie is treated as an adult, Chris is alienated by an overenthusiastic and condescending teacher who behaves as if teaching an infant. Medical professionals are regarded with scepticism by a defensive Chris—the implant process is explained in a manic manner befitting Doctor Frankenstein.
Director Harry Jardine stages an imaginative production. The story is told via BSL, spoken English, movement and creative captioning. The dialogue is in the form of rhythmic rap. The medical treatment received by the characters is not regarded as a panacea. Chris is overwhelmed by the sudden onset of noise, and his disorientation is captured in Kirsty Housley’s chaotic video designs and, more significantly, Fonseca’s tortured choreography. Raphaella finds the implant liberating. Having been obsessed with dancing even when she could not hear, the exposure to music prompts ecstatic, sensitive choreography with a sense of being reborn.
There is a heavy educative element to Follow the Signs and, as is often the case, this necessitates lengthy speeches to push home the difficulties and indignities experienced by Chris as a black, deaf male including having a white man serve as his voice. The points are valid but, as they have already been enacted and shown in dance, the speeches seem a bit heavy-handed. Parental influence is not explored in depth. No mention is made of Chris’s father, and it is implied that Raphaella’s success in speech therapy is due to her family’s support and active involvement.
Despite occasional overemphasis, Follow the Signs remains a highly imaginative and engaging approach to a sensitive subject rarely explored on stage.