Review: THE PROMISE, Birmingham Rep

There are estimated to be several hundred deaf people experiencing dementia in the UK, but there is only one care home that caters for residents who use British Sign Language. It is on the Isle of Wight, and it accommodates just fifteen residents. New play The Promise, which has its world premiere at Birmingham Rep this week, looks at the intersectionality of dementia and deafness through the experiences of one family, and highlights the urgent need for more understanding and care options.

Written by Deafinitely Theatre's Artistic Director Paula Garfield and Melissa Mostyn, and directed by Garfield, The Promise tells the story of Rita Gardiner and her son Jake, who are reunited when Jake returns to the UK after his father's death. Finding his mother's health declining, Jake is faced with the task of navigating an inaccessible care system and finding help for her while also struggling with the estrangement that has plagued them since Rita broke her promise to attend his wedding.

Anna Seymour is an impressive Rita. We first meet her in her role as a vibrant, passionate teacher, giving a lecture on Shakespeare's Sonnet 18 and bringing it to life with beautiful, heartfelt signing. A few years later, she is painfully confused and increasingly excluded from the world around her. 

Seymour's subtle, restrained performance keeps the audience with her throughout, ensuring that by the time she enters a care home, we feel the true horror of being trapped in an unfamiliar place, unable to understand others or make yourself understood.

She's well supported by James Boyle as Jake, who sympathetically portrays the frustrations and helplessness of his situation as Rita's only surviving family member, as well as the years of hurt feelings that lie between the two of them. 

We also meet, via flashbacks, Jake's father and Rita's husband Mike (Louis Neethling), whose limited understanding of the AIDs epidemic leads to homophobia and drives a wedge between his wife and son. The parallels between homophobia and ableism, both compounded by ignorance, are well drawn but never heavy-handed.

Occasionally the script and staging are unclear as to whether the scenes we see are flashbacks, hallucinations or a bleeding together of past and present, but for the most part the play succeeds in blending a fractured family history with present-day challenges. The final section, featuring Rita’s recurring memory of an airport, is particularly powerful.

The Promise is told primarily through BSL with captions projected on the backdrop, as well as some spoken English. Marie Zschommler’s sound design and delicate compositions add a great deal of emotion to the story, and Holly Ellis’ lighting uses dramatic colour changes to transport us from the sunny, warm days of Rita’s past to the stark, frightening reality of her present.

This is an engaging, necessary play that depicts experiences which are hugely underrepresented in media, as well as tackling universal feelings like grief, family ties and the pain of words left unsaid. It's rarely an easy watch, but it’s an important one. 

The Promise at Birmingham Rep until 13 April, then touring

Photo Credit: Becky Bailey

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