Deaf-led theatre company Deafinitely Theatre has announced the full line-up for their 20th anniversary season, including a new show staged on a bus.
The line-up of shows includes James Baldwin’s Getting There, produced by Toucan Theatre and Oxford Playhouse, in association with Deafinitely Theatre and Be Free Young Carers. Staged on an Oxford bus, the show explores what life is like as a young carer, and the roles they play within their families, schools and local communities. Getting There will tour secondary schools in Oxfordshire from Monday 21 March to Friday 1 April.
Alongside this will be the premiere of Deafinitely Theatre’s artistic director Paula Garfield’s Everyday, which is based on interviews with deaf women and non-binary people who have survived domestic abuse. Everyday stars Fifi Garfield, Kelsey Gordon, Zoë McWhinney and Bea Webster, and will open on 20 May before embarking on a national tour.
A series of short films had already been announced as part of Talking Hands, which explores the experiences of deaf people during the pandemic. Abigail Gorman’s Life, it Goes On and The Woman I Am by Samantha Pearsall will be released in the summer, alongside three previously announced shorts: I Still Blame Myself by Lianne Herbert, Melissa Mostyn’s Keeping Hope, and EJ Raymond’s Lockdown Hairy.
Paula Garfield, artistic director of Deafinitely Theatre, said: “We are so proud and excited about the forthcoming 20th anniversary year for Deafinitely Theatre. From our collaboration in Oxford on a bus with Getting There to our main production of Everyday at the New Diorama Theatre in May and on tour across the UK in June. We’re so thrilled to be breaking down taboos and stereotypes of deaf people and showing what we can achieve and what makes up our rich and diverse deaf community in 2022 and beyond. We’re so pleased to be working with more deaf writers, particularly on our short films – Talking Hands – which are giving a voice to members of the deaf community from a range of backgrounds – LGBTQIA+, non-binary and others.
“We are thrilled that our 20th anniversary season will be celebrating stories by a diverse range of deaf writers and getting their voices on stage and on screen makes me so proud to celebrate our 20th anniversary and look forward to what we can create in the future.”
For more information, visit Deafinitely Theatre’s website, or follow them on Twitter.
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Image courtesy of Deafinitely Theatre
