Sydney’s Ensemble Theatre, lead by director Susanna Dowling, will present a season of Nina Raine‘s awarding winning play Tribes, previewing later this week.
In Raine’s acclaimed show, Billy, a deaf man from a intellectual, though comically dysfunctional, Jewish family, meets Sylvia, who teaches him sign language. Exploring the idea of families and communities as ‘tribes’, governed by rules and regulations, Raine’s work showcases the independence Billy finds as he learns a language that his parents cannot speak, and the loss of it that Sylvia experiences, as her own failing hearing threatens to cause a retreat from the wider world.
Raine says: “I first had the idea of writing Tribes when I watched a documentary about a deaf couple. The woman was pregnant. They wanted their baby to be deaf. I was struck by the thought that this was actually what many people feel, deaf or otherwise. Parents take great pleasure in witnessing the qualities they have managed to pass on to their children. Not only a set of genes. A set of values, beliefs. Even a particular language. The family is a tribe: an infighting tribe but intensely loyal.”
In her Ensemble Theatre debut, director Susanna Dowling has stayed true to Raine’s stipulation that a deaf actor play the role of Billy. Luke Watts, who, like Billy, only learned to lip-read as an adult, will return to the role, after first performing the character 4 years ago for the Melbourne Theatre Company. Ana Maria Belo, who will play Sylvia, also has her own connections with her character – she too is losing her hearing.
Ensemble Theatre’s production of Tribes will preview at their Kirribilli theatre starting on Thursday 26th May, with a month long run beginning on Wednesday 1st June.
Tickets are available through the Ensemble Theatre’s website.
For further information, including dates of audio described/captioned performances, please see the website.
Image credit: Ensemble Theatre
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