New forms of Chekhov: The Seagull transformed by Sign Language at EIF

It was in this room, three years ago, that a team of Deaf and hearing actors began to collaborate on a ground-breaking production of Chekhov called [Seagull]. It became the first repertory play to be performed in VGT, and is believed to be the first translation of The Seagull into any Sign Language. It went on to win awards at theatre festivals in Flanders and the Netherlands, and The Hand of Flanders Award from the Deaf community, and is about to have its British premiere at the Edinburgh International Festival.

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For director Stijn Van Opstal of theatre collective Olympique Dramatique, the idea began as a tribute to a Deaf friend from childhood. “Our ways grew apart and when I heard that he had passed away I regretted never having learned his language. I started to learn Sign Language, but it didn’t really stick because life in theatre drew me away. I thought, I have to be ambitious, if I really want to get to know the Deaf community, I have to invite them into my world, which is theatre.”

He did not have a clear sense of what would result. “A production completely in Sign Language was not the plan. The plan was, let’s make a meeting point, with Sign Language as the language of the rehearsal room, and if we really collaborate together, what would this look like? I think curiosity and willingness to try to collaborate were key.”

He knew, however, that the vehicle for that journey would be The Seagull. “I was curious because I had done a production in drama school, I knew the richness of the play. Because the young people in the play are looking for new forms, it seemed like a great starting point to embark on an artistic collaboration.”

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It was a journey which involved some of the best known actors in Flanders spending a year learning Sign Language, a full translation of the play being made by members of the Deaf community, and a long collaborative rehearsal process. The result is a production where Chekhov’s play is luminous and complete, its emotional nuances conveyed by Sign Language, gesture and surtitles, but it also brings into sharp focus how much of the drama is about the struggle to be heard and understood.

Van Opstal says: “There are so many deep personal conversations (in the play) about ambition, family relations, love. And when you strip those people of their common language, you feel that one side doesn’t speak the language fluently, or just partly understands the conversation. I think we touch on Chekhov’s intention to show how we never really comprehend the other.”

[Seagull] is more than a performance in Sign Language with surtitles for hearing people. Gradually, the surtitles become more impressionistic, more like a literal translation of the Sign Language, then in the final scenes they disappear altogether (in Edinburgh, this part of the show will be signed in BSL). At this point, Van Opstal says, the hearing audience is so engaged they go with the flow.

“A lot of people have the idea that they’ve learned Sign Language because they understand the people on stage. Of course they haven’t learned Sign Language, but they’ve learned the characters and know their needs and their loves and their ambitions, and they catch a few signs, and this combined is enough to understand.”

An open call for Deaf actors brought to the company Yana Wuytjens, an 18-year-old Deaf woman who had never acted before, who gives an extraordinary performance as a non-binary Konstantin. “From a child, I was interested in theatre but there aren’t a lot of opportunities around for Deaf or hard of hearing people,” says Yana, who is now 21.

“Konstantin is not an easy character, there are a lot of very high and very low emotions. In the beginning, it was all new, it was a real search, but there are a lot of experienced actors in the company and they gave me a lot of help. I feel like we’re a really good team.”

She says she hopes the play will build bridges between the Deaf and hearing communities. “I think for hearing people who don’t know anything about Sign Language or Deaf culture, or maybe haven’t even seen Deaf people, if they come to a play like this, it’s a new world that opens for them. I hope that a lot of hearing people will be more aware of the Deaf community in their daily lives. I hope they will be more open.

“A lot of Deaf people are very happy that they finally have a chance to come and watch a play that is fully in their mother language. In the past they would say, ‘I’m not going to the theatre, it doesn’t interest me’, but now they come and watch [Seagull] and understand that watching theatre can be fun because it’s fully accessible to them. They don’t have to arrange for interpretation, they can just come into the building and watch the show like every other hearing person.”

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Meanwhile, Carolien Doggen, a lecturer at the University of Leuven in Antwerp who is herself Deaf, came back from maternity leave to find three famous actors in her Sign Language class. “That was when I realised they were really serious about learning Sign Language,” she says, smiling.

“When Deaf people hear that ‘hearing actors will learn Sign Language’ they are a bit hesitant because it is usually not good Sign Language. It’s like listening to the radio in the car, where you lose connection and once in a while you hear a word you understand. But when we watched [Seagull] it was not like that. They had clear and good Sign Language, they played their non-verbal expressions very well. It was very well received in the Deaf community and they came and watched it en masse.”

In her role supporting the production as a Sign Language coach, she was able to watch the cast of five hearing and three Deaf actors learn ways of working together. “To begin with, it was a real search, but after some time away I came back and they had found their own ways of communication, they had humour, they laughed together, they had found a connection. Everybody put in a big effort. It was a really nice integration of languages and cultures.”

[Seagull], Edinburgh Festival Theatre, 7-11 August, www.eif.co.uk

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