Drama and darkness: Sight and sound of deafblind theatre

Not By Bread Alone
Nalaga'at theatre company, Arts Depot, London

Not By Bread Alone is a new production from the world's only deafblind theatre company from the Nalaga'at Centre at the Jaffa Port in Tel Aviv.

As the audience took their seats at the Arts Depot in North Finchley, the cast of 11 were already on stage kneading dough in a warmly sepia-lit, wood and brick bakery set. The ensemble took turns to introduce themselves and talk about and act out their memories and dreams as "we do not live by bread alone".

It's a dynamic production, with lots of movement around the stage, mime, music and dance. Rehearsals lasted for two years as the cast learned the stage directions and cues.

There is some sadness of wishing that things could be different – yearning for lost senses and dreams of sight or hearing restored – but the emphasis is largely on celebration and fun with a dash of education for the audience. Bat-Shiva Ravenseri dreams of seeing her son's face when he returns from the army but more is made of her dream of getting an appointment with a celebrity hairdresser.

There is some Chaplin-like miming of sandwich eating from Marc Yarosky and some comic exchanges between characters. Shoshana Segal gets exasperated with Genia Shtasky's one-upmanship, everything Russian is better, even the rain: "The rain in Israel would not even get you wet!"

There is no overt mention of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Soldiers are mentioned twice in passing during the play and at the end the Artistic Director, Adina Tal, said that at Nalaga'at "Jews, Muslims and Christians work together".

There is a triumphant ending to the play: a Jewish wedding. The audience gets to shout "Mazel Tov!" and is invited onstage to share the bread that has been baking during the performance and meet the performers.

The interactive Nalaga'at experience doesn't end here. They've also exported Café Kappish staffed by deaf waiters and The Blackout Bar with blind waiters in complete darkness.

Kelly Mullan

To complement the performances Sense, the deafblind association, has created a Touching Art exhibition at the Arts Depot. Sense helped bring Nalaga'at to the UK and is planning future deafblind arts events to be announced.
sense.org.uk