One Story, Three Languages

One Story, Three Languages

Serbian, English and New Zealand Sign Language combined, create ground-breaking theatre

(Note – Capitalisation of D in Deaf is intentional and denotes a culture.)

Award winning New Zealand theatre company, Equal Voices Arts, brings their new multilingual production, Salonica home after a history-making tour of Europe. Salonica plays in Wellington (15th-17th February, Circa Two), Auckland (22nd – 24th February, Q Theatre) as part of Auckland Fringe Festival, and Hamilton (1st/2nd March, Playhouse Theatre). This is totally unique and original theatre that criss-crosses languages and cultures to share a vital story of friendship against the backdrop of WWI.

The first of its kind to tour internationally, Salonica is performed in New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL), English and Serbian, and has been developed to be accessible for Deaf and hearing audiences in all the countries it travels to. Their recent European Tour marked the first time NZSL and a Deaf professional actor (Shaun Fahey) had featured on prestigious stages in Serbia and Montenegro.

The story centres around the friendship between a Serbian soldier and a Kiwi sapper, who has concealed his Deafness to join up. Writer’s Guild award winning dramaturg, Bill Hopkinsonexplains:

“the idea for the piece… was inspired by actual stories of Deaf soldiers who concealed their Deafness to go to war. There were British, Irish and Australian examples and who knows? There may have been a Kiwi. So much Deaf history is now revealing itself to us as we become aware of its importance”

Director, Dr. Laura Haughey (University of Waikato/Equal Voices Arts) was commissioned by the National Theatre of Belgrade in Serbia after a successful tour of Haughey’s work, ‘At The End Of My Hands’, won an Arts Access Aotearoa award in 2016. Dr. Haughey developed the piece at the University of Waikato with an international team of Deaf and hearing artists from New Zealand, Serbia and the UK.

Haughey comments: ‘Salonica has been developed to be accessible to Deaf and hearing audiences in all the countries it travels to. The piece is performed with no formal interpretation between languages so the languages are explored on stage with equal status. We are so pleased to be bringing the show home to New Zealand, and to have NZSL on stage performed by a first language Deaf performer.’’

Kiwi actor Shaun Fahey who is Deaf, and whose first language was NZSL will perform alongside Mihailo Ladevac. Mihailo, an actor for the National Theatre in Serbia, has had the incredible task of working in three languages.
Equal Voices Arts is committed to exploring the creative possibilities in making theatre accessible for diverse audiences.

The company would like to thank the NZSL Fund and the University of Waikato for their support with this project.
IMPORTANT FOR DEAF READERS: Information about Salonica in NZSL can be found at https://equalvoicesarts.com/2017/10/nzsl-film-salonica-new-zealand-tour

Salonica plays:
WELLINGTON
DATES: 15 – 17 Feb
TIMES: 7.30
VENUE: Circa Two
TICKETS: https://nz.patronbase.com/_Circa/Productions/1803/Performances

AUCKLAND (as part of Auckland Fringe Festival)
DATES: 22 – 24 Feb
TIMES: 6.45PM
VENUE: Loft, Q Theatre
TICKETS: http://www.qtheatre.co.nz/salonica

HAMILTON
DATES: 1 – 2 Mar
TIMES: 7.30pm
VENUE: Playhouse Theatre
TICKETS: http://www.waikato.ac.nz/academy/events/theatre/salonica

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