★ ★ ★ ★
The marriage of BSL and traditional Gaelic song and dance is a pleasure for the senses. Director/Performer Evie Waddell (who we saw during the fringe at the Deaf Cabaret) has created a showcase of stories and pieces that shows the richness of Scottish culture combined with the physical poetry of BSL. Along with Katie Allen on the fiddle and Francesca Tills’ movement, the group take us through eleven varied pieces.
The scope of the programme is impressive. From traditional Gaelic songs such as Uamh an Oir to contemporary work such as Duan an Fhogarrach (The Refugee’s Plea) the translation of which was passed on through BSL ‘orally, aurally and corporeally’.
There was much light and shade in the curation of pieces, a lot of fun was had by both performers and audience. The penultimate piece was ‘less about deafness more just deaf artists having fun and being free’. The emotional rollercoaster of the showcase was felt, at moments the beauty of the singing bringing people to tears, then undercut by a silly nonsense song which had us all laughing,
Evie’s intention is to show that being deaf is not incompatible with being a musician is where the showcase really succeeds. She also has given a space exclusively to deaf creatives in collaboration with BSL consultants and Solar Bear. This is assured work by deaf practitioners, that allows a hearing audience in, but gives priority to their deaf audience. Something we love to see.
This review is written by someone who isn’t from the community they are writing about, we welcome opinion from the Deaf community and happy to publish further comment about this show.
Fáilte Gu BSL is part for the International Scottish Storytelling Festival, which runs till the 31st October.
