Breaking sound barriers: When we deaf awaken

Helen Keller (1880-1968), the American author and political activist once said “I am just as deaf as I am blind. The problems of deafness are deeper and more complex, if not more important than those of blindness.” However, she turned what was considered a “fait accompli” into an opportunity to prove to the world that there are always ways and means to change one’s destiny.
Keller eventually went on to become a world-famous deaf-blind speaker and author. She has been remembered as an advocate for people with disabilities and many other social and political causes.
Comparing her experience with normal people, she said “Children who hear acquire language without any particular effort; the words that fall from others’ lips they catch on the wing, as it were, delightedly, while the little deaf child must trap them by a slow and often painful process. But whatever the process, the result is wonderful. Gradually from naming an object we advance step by step until we have traversed the vast distance between our first stammered syllable and the sweep of thought in a line of Shakespeare.”

And it was perhaps not without a reason the famous American author invoked the bard of Avon, William Shakespeare, the doyen of English literature and dramatic texts. Keller in many ways seemed to have noted the inner core and the burning talents of children with hearing and speech impairment.
And we are not far away from such children of God, not of the lesser one or kind. Perhaps for the first time ever in Nagaland, twenty-seven children from the Deaf Biblical Ministry, Dimapur staged a full-fledged “evolved play” called “The Wedding” on July 12 evening at Imliyanger Memorial Center, Dimapur. 
The play has been aptly termed as “fruit of love and labour” by the director Bendang Walling of Lytel Feather’s Film and Theatre Production.
After conducting an intensive workshop with the extremely talented children who are deaf, Bendang who was trained in the art and science of theatre at the National School of Drama, Delhi in a rather humble projection of the effort writes on the little brochure of the play “The play revolves around a ring and a watch. Human conditions, emotions and thoughts are displayed through the two objects and the inseparable bond that we as human beings have made with material objects.” 
Anyone who was there to watch the play would have experienced much more than the two liner introduction about the play.
The story of the play revolves around a wedding ring and a wrist-watch. The owners of both the objects lost their prized possessions triggering a chain reaction filled with all human emotions aptly and ably enacted by the twenty-seven children.
The play brought to life the seemingly hidden moments of life as experienced by those who are rooted to their surroundings. It brings to surface the darker side of human beings’ localized obsession with worldly objects while trampling inherited decent values in the every-day world as experienced by people in Nagaland.
The 40-minute play opens with a wedding scene and exchange of rings between the bride and the groom that sets off a series of cascading and humorous sub-plots with truly animated gestures that looked so natural and real with slices of humour thrown in where they mattered.
The pursuit of meaningless materialism and shallowness of life dependent on objects have been given a new lease of life with symbolic necessities. The play ends with another wedding scene, perhaps a subtle reminder that the circle is not run yet. 

What attracted the audience was the easy negotiation of the spatial and temporal aspects of the play by the children. Within a month, the twenty-seven children, ten girls and seventeen boys were trained by Bendang to master the stage. By dramatic standards, the result was indeed beyond expectation though there were moments some discerning audience would have loved to change few plots or perhaps the effective use of props and lights.
Whatever the minute-critical issues the play had, Bendang expressed satisfaction with the production of the play. Here, the proverbial tension between the child actors and the young director collapses into real love and fondness found missing in many professional dramatic circuits.
However, the total impact of the play was not as easily set into motion as the spectacle portrayed-for the director had to doubly ensure that the children knew what they were doing.
Bendang said the idea behind the project was to make the children realize that they were no different from any other human beings. He had to first deconstruct the notion that spoken language was the only way of communicating between human beings. Bendang also wanted to break away from the understanding that learning the sign language was essential for communicating with the deaf without underplaying its importance.
 “As much as possible, I tried not to use the sign language with them. I did not want them to have insecurities, so I treated them as normal,” he said. 
Bendang proudly discloses that the story of the play including the plots was all evolved by the children during the workshop.
“Interestingly, The Wedding was evolved by the children themselves during the workshop. I had only guided them and directed the play”, he said adding that “That’s what we do. We use theatre art to reach out to these kids and make them realize that they are just as normal like you and I.”
However, when one closely watches the play, there is a realization that the story or the thematic content of the performance text was quite different from any normative or conventional children’s play. 
Bendang concurs with the observation but adds “It is true the story is meant for adults. But since the same was evolved during the workshop, I realize these children are not free from the day to day events and happening around them.”
What the director expressed alludes to the fact social realities do not discriminate impacts on the minds of human beings, be they adults or children.
For instance, some of the scenes of the play portray the culture of gun that has become so rampant in societies afflicted with conflict. The use of gun culture and unabated alcohol consumption do have definitive impact on the minds of these kids, opined Bendang. He however, quickly adds “We tried to do it in a farcical way with humour because it is our style, the Naga style. That is what we like,” he said. 
Another aspect an observer could not skip noticing was the way how Bendang picked up children who just fit into the charted characters of the play. In the absence of a well crafted conventional protagonist and antagonist, the characters of the play aided by the plots could build up the climax in such a way without traces of space and time hiccups. 
While the children displayed their variegated skills, there are two individuals who have been equally responsible for nurturing their talents - Rev. Yanger Walling and his wife Amongla who started the Deaf Biblical Ministry in 1987. They received special training on deaf psychology & education under Bruce and Ruth Ann Schwalbe of the United States. If anyone notices the self-confidence in each of these gifted children on and off the stage, both deserve honest accolade for showing the children, the way and making them break the sound barriers and awakening all. They speak with their actions.