Review: Follow the Signs at HOME is a ‘powerful celebration of identity, representation and community’

Written by Chris Fonseca (dance artist, choreographer, theatre-make) and Harry Jardine (theatre director, producer, and theatre programmer), Follow the Signs is a fully BSL-led hip hop gig theatre show.

The performance combines BSL, hip hop, rap, spoken words and outstanding visuals to narrate an emotional story that will make both the deaf and hearing audience smile, laugh, gasp and cry together.

Follow the Sign at HOME

The performance starts (and ends!) like a party, with the cast already dancing on the stage, creating the perfect electric and welcoming atmosphere.

The passion that the four performers immediately show does not only create an immediate sense of community, but also already tell us a story.

It was while partying in a club that the main character Chris (Chris Fonseca) and Raphi (Raphaella Julien) first met. Their friendship was initially ignited by their common love for hip-hop and dancing, and finally exploded when they discovered they were both deaf and communicating through signigng.

Voiced by the rest of the cast, both Chris and Raphi share their memories growing up as deaf children. While their experiences might initially look similar, we soon learn that they had to face different challenges.

Chris remembers how his mum could never fully learn BSL because she could not pay for it, hinting at how hard it can be to care for your loved ones in certain circumstances and cultural contexts.

A struggle with identity

Chris struggled all his life to find his own identity especially after hearing his mum saying that he’s not just deaf, but also “not white”. On the other hand, we have Ralphi, who grew up with parents who could afford better speech therapy and were immediately able to find a way to communicate with their daughter, helping her accepting her diversity and shaping her identify from a young age.

Raphi’s journey provides the perfect contract to remind the viewers that our stories as individuals are not always comparable, and in the end we all struggle to find our identities and our place in the world, either based on our community, race, class or gender.

The body sequences accompanying the cochlear implant scenes open the most powerful and intimate moment of the shot. The two protagonists barely need any words to express how this process feels, their reactions to hearing their parents’ voices for the first time, leading to a long silence that beautifully breaks the rhythm of a loud performance.

The performance is underscored by an eclectic soundtrack composed by Yacoub Didi. The cast dances, sings and signs on a minimalist stage, that also relies on projections to convey spoken words from Chris and Raffie’s interpreters. Of course, British Sign Language (BSL) has a pivotal role, being the main language used to narrate Chris’s story and his quest to feel enough and find his own community.

Follow the Signs is the perfect blends of rapping, signing and dancing. This emotional performance weaves together a rich and colourful tapestry of storytelling, raising issues of racism, deafness, audism, and ultimate quest for identity that does not need spoken words to loudly resonate with the audience.

Tickets for Follow the Signs at HOME

Follows the Signs is at Home from Tuesday 5th November to Saturday 9th November and you can book tickets here