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It’s been a busy old week here at Time & Again, what with our @gmfringe Shakespeare performances! So much so that we missed our weekly #EarwigWednesdays post on deaf history. Here’s our next installment, better late than never.

In 1880, The Second International Congress on Education of the Deaf was held in Milan. After five days of deliberations, the conference declared that oral education (the use of lip reading and speech) was superior to manual education (the use of sign language) and passed a resolution banning the use of sign language in schools. This leads to the widespread suppression of sign language in many Deaf schools throughout the world.

The Congress was planned by the Pereire Society, a group that was against sign language. More than half of the people invited were known oralists; therefore the Congress was biased and most of the resolutions that were voted on by the delegates gave results in favour of the oral method. Many of the resolutions were worded in a leading way, supporting oral education, such as “Considering the incontestable superiority of speech over signs in restoring the deaf-mute to society, and in giving him a more perfect knowledge of language,/Declares –/That the Oral method ought to be preferred that of signs for the education and instruction of the deaf and dumb”.

The resolutions had a huge knock on effect for the deaf community. Education and quality of life for deaf students decreased, deaf teachers lost their jobs, and there was an overall decline in deaf professionals, like writers, artists, and lawyers.

In 2010, a formal apology was made by the board at the 21st International Congress on Education of the Deaf in Vancouver. They accepted the dangerous ramifications of such ban as an act of discrimination and violation of human and constitutional rights.

As we start to build up to our first performances of Earwig, we’ve decided to start a regular feature about deaf history on our social media platforms!

There’s so much to cover – so much that is often left unexplored by mainstream media! Unfortunately, as with anything historical, some of the terms, phrases and ideas we will be discussing are outdated and unacceptable to a modern audience. However, it’s important to acknowledge and learn from these aspects of history as we look towards a more inclusive future.

What is deafness?

Simply put, deafness occurs when when sound signals from the ear don’t reach the brain. However, deafness is anything but simple and can vary greatly from person to person. There are four main types: conductive hearing loss (involving the outer or middle ear), sensorineural (involving the inner ear), mixed hearing loss (a combination of conductive and sensorineural) and auditory neuropathy spectrum disorder (where sound signals are disrupted as they travel to the brain). Within this, there are different levels, ranging from mild – where it is difficult to distinguish softer sounds, to profound – where sound cannot be detected at all. This impacts upon how those with deafness communicate – oral communication may be challenging to impossible, so communication methods such as lip reading and sign language can be key.

The first known record of sign language was written in the 5th Century BC. In a dialogue on the “correctness of names”, Socrates says: “Suppose that we had no voice or tongue, and wanted to communicate with one another, should we not, like the deaf and dumb, make signs with the hands and head and the rest of the body?”. His belief that deaf people possessed an innate intelligence for language put him at odds with his student Aristotle, who said, “Those who are born deaf all become senseless and incapable of reason,” and that “it is impossible to reason without the ability to hear”.

This pronouncement would, unfortunately, reverberate through the ages and it was not until the 17th century that manual alphabets began to emerge, as did various treatises on deaf education, such as Reducción de las letras y arte para enseñar a hablar a los mudos (‘Reduction of letters and art for teaching mute people to speak’), written by Juan Pablo Bonet in Madrid in 1620, and Didascalocophus, or, The deaf and dumb mans tutor, written by George Dalgarno in 1680.

In Earwig, Marigold is profoundly deaf in her left ear (no sound at all) and mildly deaf in her right ear (some hearing but would struggle with soft sounds). This means she is deaf with a lowercase d. She uses written and spoken English as her first language, and isn’t part of Deaf society.

From the Bonet writings

Earwig plays at Edinburgh Festival Fringe at 14:10pm in Front Room (Assembly Rooms) between 4th and 27th August (minus 10th August). Tickets can be purchased via tickets.edfringe.com

To bring our plays to life, we find it invaluable to immerse ourselves in books, exhibitions, films and documentaries all about the era and context in which our stories are set. As we prepare to take to Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2019 with Clouds, a story of women rising up in 1913, we thought now would be an excellent time to invite you to join us in reading up on this exciting era of early aviation and women’s suffrage!

For this first instalment of Time & Again Book Club, we decided to read historical novelist Rebecca Mascull’s The Wild Air. Like Clouds, the story is set in Edwardian England and follows a young woman with a burning desire to take to the skies in these new fangled flying machines.

Fiona Primrose who plays budding suffragette Sylvia Lovejoy in Clouds enjoyed an introduction to the world of early aviation.

‘It’s reminded me of what a huge event flying used to be. These days the novelty has worn off with thousands of successful flights happening every day, but back then it really was a spectacle and I’ll be looking to bring some of that excitement (and probably trepidation!) to our performance. I also loved the references to Shakespeare too.’

We’re no strangers to a bit of Shakespeare, our debut show Greyhounds was closely entwined with the bard’s Henry V. Thus, a reference or two will never go amiss with us.

Laura Crow was also particularly taken with the insight into flying the novel gave her. Laura is the writer and producer of Clouds and also plays Freddie Baxter, who is determined to become the first female pilot to fly around Britain in an air race so this was very pertinent to her character development!

‘The descriptions of early aviation and flight was so well researched and detailed. It definitely helped me think about what Freddie would go through each time she took her Blackburn up; the cold, the fear, the excitement, the tempestuous nature of early machinery! 

I loved the descriptions of pre-war Hendon too. It really gave a window into the ‘last glorious summer’ type feeling of the Edwardian era.’

We recently visited Hendon on a trip to London’s RAF Museum. It was particularly exciting to see where parts of the novel were set and see photographs and memorabilia of Claude Grahame-White, who has quite the cameo in the book.

Catherine Cowdrey, who plays Lady Sara Fitzmaurice whose focus is on hosting the perfect garden party, found the characters a big part of the delight of the book.

‘Rebecca Mascull has done a fantastic job of creating a set of vibrant, strong female characters. Aviatrix Della definitely knows her own mind and is not afraid to break the rules. Similarly, her sisters and aunt manage to carve their way in what is perceived to be quite a repressed society. I think this is something we can definitely engage with and explore when we discuss our characters and their motives.’

Clouds director Jacqueline Wheble liked how the author evokes that feeling of being trapped in a small town like Cleethorpes with no future at the start of the novel. The way this then blossoms into the delight of kite flying with that special Auntie who opens up the world to her is really delightful. Cultivating convincing family relationships like this is something which will be key for Clouds as we meet Freddie and her brother Theodore who share a similarly special bond. Jac also thought that the character of the father in The Wild Air, Pop the damaged actor, is very well drawn, bitter and demanding, withholding praise to control his children. Rebecca Mascull’s characters are clearly very carefully considered.

All in all, this page-turner was a big hit with Time & Again Theatre Company’s bookworms. Rebecca Mascull paints a stunning picture of Edwardian England and its aviation scene, one which will certainly inform how we take our Clouds characters to the stage.

Have you read The Wild Air? Let us know what you enjoyed about the book if so! Keep your eyes peeled for the announcement of our next read very soon.