BWW Reviews: Nina Raine's TRIBES Is Electrifying Theatre Not to Be Missed

Tribes/by Nina Raine/directed by David Cromer/Mark Taper Forum/through April 14

Nina Raine takes the problems of the hearing vs. nonhearing worlds to a new and much higher level in her Drama Desk Award winning play Tribes now making its West Coast premiere at the Mark Taper Forum. Whereas Mark Medoff introduced audiences to the deaf community in his brilliant Children of a Lesser God, Raine goes way beyond basics to highlight the issues that arise when the deaf communicate through oralism - speaking/reading lips - as opposed to ASL (American Sign Language). When a deaf man Billy (Russell Harvard) grows up in a dysfunctional household dictated by selfish artist parents and siblings who have no clear line of communication, the problems become intensely unbearable. With outstanding direction from the director of the original New York production David Cromer and a first-rate cast, most of whom are original cast members, Tribes is dramedy at its finest hour, educating, stimulating and totally enveloping its audience.

It is a challenge, however, to get into the play. As a matter of fact, in the very first scene around the dining room table of the British family, there is so much screaming and yelling - for them intellectual sparring about language and its value - that it is almost impossible to understand exactly what is being stated. It takes a while to realize that the playwright means to make us uncomfortable, frustrated and confused, just as are the characters caught in the middle of the so-called 'normal' daily helter skelter family discussion. There are moments that come off comedic. It's kind of like Kaufman and Hart's You Can't Take It With You, also with an artistic, dysfunctional family, but more feverishly intense, without the lighthearted touches. We laugh, but it's only funny... in a bitterly realistic and painful manner, as there are devastating individual conflicts at stake.

Deaf son Billy speaks and reads lips, and has been trained this way since birth. He is adored by his parents Christopher and Beth (Jeff Still and Lee Roy Rogers), but totally by their misguided standards, causing him to function alone. He is literally drowning in his inability to be understood and appreciated properly. Obstinate/egomaniacal father Christopher refuses to have him learn ASL as, for him, it's having to accept that his son is different, a member of a minority. One day at an exhibition Billy meets Sylvia (Susan Pourfar), a hearing/speaking woman from a deaf family, who is slowly going deaf herself, and the tide turns dramatically. She can sign; Billy cannot. When she teaches Billy, his world slowly opens up to new possibilities that include a job, a taste of true love; in short, a brand new life emerges for him.

Billy's siblings Daniel (Will Brill) and Ruth (Gayle Rankin) have their own strained issues. Dan, currently a student trying to write a thesis, is branded a total waste by his father, and on top of that, hears voices. When Billy is not around, he stammers profusely, seemingly not able to stand on his own without his brother's support. Ruth is another lost child, without a definite plan. Her latest endeavor is singing opera, and in that she considers herself a miserable failure. Both are jealous of Billy and Sylvia. Dan, because Sylvia is taking his brother away and Ruth, because it reminds her of a romantic partner missing from her life. As Billy strikes out on his own with Sylvia, he announces to his family that he will no longer speak to any of them unless they learn to use sign language. He has taken a job interpreting surveillance tapes because of his strong ability to read lips, but still wants to keep signing in Sylvia's presence and to adapt permanently to ASL. Sylvia, however, is torn between her love for Billy and her hearing loss, a fact that should bring her closer to her deaf parents, but it doesn't. Within all of these conflicts we are permitted to examine both sides of the coin: the hearing world as it looks down on the deaf community...and the deaf whose strange built-in hierarchy separates those deaf since birth from those like Sylvia who speak normally but are losing their hearing. The deaf are looking down on their own kind, as well, upon those who happen to be on this tier of the hierarchy.

There is much to grasp in Tribes. The title represents the different groups to which the deaf belong, as a measure of security, whether it be within the hearing world or within the deaf community itself. Despite all the complexity, Tribes is a fascinating exploration of the disabled and the dysfunctional quite unlike any other existing play. It boasts an incredibly sensitive ensemble of actors. Harvard and Pourfar strike real emotional chords with Billy and Sylvia, two people from totally divergent worlds. Pourfar is astounding as Sylvia loses touch, as is Brill who really illuminates Daniel's isolated malfunctions. Rankin, Still and Rogers are equally fine. Director Cromer's sensitivity is so much at play as he allows each actor his (her) shining moment. Sometimes the characters mesh, sometimes they collide, sometimes they remain apart...but always searching to find their way with as much heart and soul as possible. Scott Pask's set is akin to a maze with a multitude of obstacles. At times I felt as if I were watching rats scurrying around, and the whole scenario was like one big scientific experiment exploring the hypothesis What if...? Daniel Kluger's sound design is also brilliant, especially in the moments of interminable screeching sound waves crashing against each other, representing what it all must sound like to the deaf and to those losing their hearing.

Bravo to Nina Raine's overwhelmingly intelligent script and to Cromer and his cast for their incredibly theatrical execution. Tribes presents a world that is neither easy to enter or to live in, but one that should be experienced. A must see!

http://www.centertheatregroup.org/

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