Not By Bread Alone at artsdepot

Not By Bread Alone at artsdepot

07 July, 2010
by: Hollyw

Holly Williams samples Nalag'at Theatre's multilayered play Not By Bread Alone, performed entirely by a cast of deaf-blind actors at artsdepot

Man does not live by bread alone; we need hopes and dreams, love and laughter, human contact and connection. For the eleven deaf-blind actors in Nalaga'at's play at artsdepot, who speak movingly throughout the show of their experiences in "the darkness and the silence", making this connection can be even more of a challenge.

Yet there is certainly a sense of joy here. Having rehearsed over two years at the Nalaga’at centre in Israel, the actors are comfortable with their devised material. But their confidence on a stage where they can neither hear nor see fellow actors or audience is still pretty impressive. There’s also a palpable sense of their enjoyment in performing, and the show is gently funny, even if some of the humour does perhaps get lost in the multi-layered translations.

The actors' individual performing styles also reveal their personalities. Bat-Sheva Ravenseri is graceful, sensual, and tells how she always dreamed of being a glamorous actress; Itzik Hanuna’s indomitable, solid and rather loud stage presence matches his irrepressible spirit, while Marc Yaroskyi's music hall slapstick conveys a cheeky, show-off delight in having an audience to play to.

But there's also, unsurprisingly, a darker side here. When they talk without self-pity of their never-to-be-fulfilled dreams – being able to go to the movies with a big bucket of popcorn, or watch birds flying – it's heartbreaking to realise how easy it is to take thing likes sight and hearing for granted, and just what losing both might mean. The statements that are most gut-punching are often delivered with a simple directness, as when Shoshana Segal says that she likes to shake people’s hands so she knows that they really exist.

The bread of the title is not purely metaphorical – Nalaga'at use the baking of bread as their time frame. They knead it as the show begins, let it rise, and bake it in on-stage ovens. At the end, we join them for a shared experience of eating it.

The actors (some of whom have a low level of sight, hearing or speech, while others have none at all) and their interpreters communicate through various types of sign language, and in Israeli, Hebrew and Russian – all of which is translated for a British audience via projected subtitles. It’s complicated, but also compelling. In order for Not by Bread Alone to exist at all they first had to find ways of communicating with each other, before creating their own theatrical language in order to share this with an audience.

The effect is undeniably powerful. There may be moments that are a bit cheesy – the songs, for instance, don’t translate well – but you’d have to have a heart made of frozen diamonds to remain unmoved. 

Not By Bread Alone runs at artsdepot until 15th July

Click here for more International Events
Click here for more London Theatre
Click here for more Things to do in London

Hollyw