Deaf Republic at the Royal Court Theatre
Deaf Republic is the new play by Dead Centre and Zoë McWhinney, adapted from the poems of Ukrainian-American author Ilya Kaminsky.
Alfonso and Sonya are puppeteers in a small town in Ukraine. Petya, a young deaf child watching the show, is unable to hear and understand the soldier’s orders to disperse. He is killed. The next day, the entire town wakes up deaf.
In their shared deafness, the town buzzes with newfound solidarity, resistance and poetry. But war is still upon them, and the tragedies don’t stop.
You’d be forgiven for looking at this show and thinking it’ll just be a nice, small thing with a good message about accessibility. After all, the Royal Court website doesn’t give much away, their current poster style probably isn’t doing it justice, and the show begins simply with a couple of people standing on a barebones stage. But you’d be wrong. Deaf Republic is a staggeringly powerful modern epic with the production values to match.
Deaf Republic tackles themes of present-day war and violent occupation, of Ukraine and her people, of acts of silent resistance, of control and lack of, of mourning and hatred and revenge. And at the same time, it somehow manages to be funnier than some comedies.
True to form, Dead Centre have executed some utterly stunning and unique staging choices. Beautiful puppetry, live camera-work streamed to a mesh screen, aerial performances and so on. Just when you think your heart beat has settled down, the production finds a new way to get it racing again.
But perhaps the most impressive and wonderful thing about Deaf Republic is that it manages to do all this in a way that goes above and beyond accessibility. This is not a spoken show with a sign-language interpreter. Nor is it a sign-language show with subtitles. What we’ve come to hail as greatly accessible theatre pales in comparison to what Dead Centre has achieved here. Signing, spoken word and subtitles are not extras on the side of the stage but built into the show itself, woven and interconnected in ways that help tell the story. The narrative is steeped in Deaf culture and identity which drives accessibility in the most perfectly natural way instead of making it feel like it’s merely been bolted on afterwards. Of course, few playwrights and productions will ever have the ability to do this, but seeing it is really something special.
It’s absolutely criminal that this show is only on for two weeks.
Jim Compton-Hall
Photos: Johan Persson
Deaf Republic is at the Royal Court Theatre from 29th August until 13th September 2025. For further information or to book, visit the theatre’s website here.
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