The Promise by Paula Garfield and Melissa Mostyn. The Door, Birmingham Repertory Theatre, Broad Street, Birmingham B1 2EP. 06 – 13 April 2024. 4✩✩✩✩ Review: Joanna Jarvis
Photo Credit: Becky Bailey (Image of Anna Seymour as Rita).
The Promise by Paula Garfield and Melissa Mostyn. The Door, Birmingham Repertory Theatre, Broad Street, Birmingham B1 2EP. 06 – 13 April 2024.
4✩✩✩✩ Review: Joanna Jarvis
“An important promise, reluctantly broken.”
The promise of the title is one made by a mother to her son, providing a core for the narrative. How the promise is made and broken, creating a deep rift, is gradually revealed through a series of flashbacks.
At the beginning of the play we meet Rita, delicately and sensitively played by Anna Seymour. She is an English teacher in a school for the deaf taking her students through Shakespeare’s eighteenth sonnet. ‘Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?’. With excellent use of projected subtitles, we are introduced to a silent world. Rita speaks in British Sign Language (BSL), her hands are her voice. The sequence is beautiful and affecting. This is who Rita is, a teacher with a love of language.
However, Rita has problems, her memories are confused. Her beloved husband has died, and she is estranged from her son. The lengthy and frustrating process of assessment for dementia is made doubly so by Rita’s lack of hearing. This central section made the timeline a little confusing at times. But gradually, we come to understand the nature of the promise and how it is broken. There is the personal promise, but also the greater one of universal care.
This play has two target audiences. The hard of hearing for whom the situation obviously resonated. Those with hearing who have no experience of living without sound. However, a small strong cast, a simple set, and the projection of words, made it accessible to all. Deafinitely Theatre introduced me to a new world. It was sad and moving, but ultimately lifted by the film at the end, showing how properly provisioned deaf care enhances lives.
Cast
Anna Seymour – Rita
Erin Hutching – Jane
James Boyle – Jake
Louis Neethling – Mike
Creatives
Co-writers – Paula Garfield and Melissa Mostyn
Director – Paula Garfield
Associate director – Lisa Kelly
Set and costume designer – Paul Burgess
Lighting designer – Holly Ellis
Sound designer and composer – Marie Zschommer
Video designer – Douglas Baker
Associate video designer – Angel Gasparetto
BSL director – David Sands
Shakespeare translation – William Grint
Voice coach – Zoe Littleton