Hearing world enters a deaf one

Hearing world enters a deaf one

Photo: Former St. Albert resident Judy McFerran, centre, is performing in Tribes, a University of Alberta directing project by MFA student Amanda Bergen. The play is written by Nina Raine and focuses on the story of Billy, a young deaf man raised in a hearing family.
CHRIS COLBOURNE/St. Albert Gazette

Wednesday, May 13, 2015 06:00 am
By: Anna Borowiecki
St. Albert Gazette, Canada

It must be a daunting task for a fully hearing playwright to jot down a play true to the problems of a deaf protagonist in a noise-filled world.

However, English theatre director and playwright Nina Raine is most in her element when peeling away the human condition layer by layer.

And she comes by it naturally through her pedigree. She is the only daughter of poet Craig Raine and Ann Pasternak Slater as well as being the grand-niece of Russian novelist Boris Pasternak.

Raine’s 2010 London hit Tribes premiers in Edmonton under the Studio Theatre banner as part of director Amanda Bergen’s MFA graduating project. The production runs from May 14 to 23 at the Timms Centre for the Arts.

Watch the teaser of Tribes filmed by Simon Glassman below.
Company: Christopher (Ashley Wright) in Smoking Jacket. Beth (Judy McFerran) in Kimono. Dan (Mathew Hulshof) in Jeans. Ruth (Zoe Glassman) in grey dress & short pink sweater. Billy (Connor Yuzwenko-Martin) in patterned shirt. Sylvia (Bobbi Goddard) in a blue blazer and white shirt.

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It must be a daunting task for a fully hearing playwright to jot down a play true to the problems of a deaf protagonist in a noise-filled world.

However, English theatre director and playwright Nina Raine is most in her element when peeling away the human condition layer by layer.

And she comes by it naturally through her pedigree. She is the only daughter of poet Craig Raine and Ann Pasternak Slater as well as being the grand-niece of Russian novelist Boris Pasternak.

Raine’s 2010 London hit Tribes premiers in Edmonton under the Studio Theatre banner as part of director Amanda Bergen’s MFA graduating project. The production runs from May 14 to 23 at the Timms Centre for the Arts.

Published On: 16 Sivan 5775 (16 Sivan 5775 (June 3, 2015))