As part of our commitment to work with the Rose Theatre, KCIL team members Jason Lamont, Joanne Stafferton and Amelia Berreen attended the British Sign Language interpreted performance of The Seven Pomegranate Seeds on Saturday 13th November. KCIL team member Amelia uses BSL interpreters for her day-to-day work and we felt this would give our supporters and members of the deaf community an excellent insight into the inclusivity of this performance.
When we arrived at the theatre we were seated to the left of the stage in perfect view of the interpreter, we would advise anyone attending to sit to the left of the stalls to ensure you can take in the interpretation and the stage action in one vista rather than playing head tennis moving back and forth. From the very beginning of the play the interpreter was well lit by the lighting team and even when the action on stage was dark the interpreter was always visible. Despite this being a short run and having one BSL interpreted performance, the interpreter had clearly learnt the dialogue word for word and able to convey the differing emotions as the play unfolded. This is a play with two actors (Niamh Cusack & Shannon Hayes) playing over a dozen characters between them and the interpreter was able to easily switch characters, also clearly expressing emotion during difficult scenes. We were all extremely impressed by the technical level of expertise shown by the interpreter. As the play ended the interpreter – Janet Guest of Theatresign – was given a well-earned bow alongside the actors and was very well appreciated by the audience. In summary, this was an excellent experience and a credit to the Rose Theatre for putting on this performance to ensure inclusivity for the hearing-impaired community. We would thoroughly recommend any future British Sign Language interpreted performances at the Rose Theatre.
