As someone who’s interested in disabled-led work, I was really excited to get to see ‘Wake Up’, a triple bill of plays produced by Solar Bear, a theatre company focussed on work by deaf artists. The three plays had little in common when it came to subject matter. The first, ‘Ties’, was about a family’s WWII history, the second, ‘Blackout’, a farce involving a dead body, and the third, ‘Time to Wake Up’, a more experimental piece about climate change. They all shared some of the same artistic choices, such as a complete lack of dialogue and the use of mime.
Right off the bat, I really enjoyed the lack of dialogue within the show. When talking about accessibility in theatre, most of the focus goes onto the scheduling of accessible performances, such as captioned or BSL-interpreted performances. However, this show made it clear that there are many other ways to make a show accessible to a disabled audience in a more creative way, rather than just as a box-ticking exercise with a one-size-fits-all solution.
Another highlight of the show was the set. As you walk into ‘The Studio’, you’re presented with a house-like structure that’s used in the first piece. This is completely deconstructed and rearranged for the second and third pieces in a very effective and impressive way, (although the individual pieces of the set were clearly heavier than the stagehands were expecting).
However, there were some issues with the plays themselves. ‘Ties’ struggled with its pacing and the plot felt a bit derivative – there are many plays, books and films that cover similar ground, and this didn’t feel like it was doing anything especially original with its central concept. ‘Blackout’ struggled with comic timing, but its largest issue was the very confusing ending. I heard someone sat near me remark on the fact they had no idea what had just happened and I was inclined to agree. Similarly, although ‘Time to Wake Up’ had a clearer finale, it didn’t feel big enough. Across the course of the show, Petre Dobre (director and actor) mimes his way through the entire history of life on Earth, so to have it end with a fairly simple suggestion for ways to save the planet that you might see written on a worksheet for kids didn’t feel satisfactory.
I also unfortunately had issues with the use of mime. To be clear, Petre Dobre is clearly a master of his craft which worked exceptionally well in ‘Time to Wake Up’ – he mimes very complicated objects and actions but it’s always clear what he’s trying to convey, which was really impressive. The mime was intrinsic to the piece. In contrast, the performers in ‘Ties’ and ‘Blackout’ tended to use mime to attempt to get across a very simple action, raising the question of why they didn’t just use a prop.
Overall, a series of three promising plays with some really exciting artistic decisions behind them. However, there is still work to be done with them to ensure that they are as effective as possible.
Image ‘WAKE UP_Moira Anne McAuslan, Connor Bryson, & Claire Wetherall’ by Peter Dibdin provided via Press Release