Can I Start Again Please
by Sue MacLaine Companytheatre
Can I Start Again Please investigates childhood trauma using semiotic theory and Wittgenstein’s philosophy.
about the production
The piece examines the power of language, as well as its failings. Why does language conceal as much as it reveals? How can it determine what is heard and what is ignored, what is articulated and what is silenced? Parallel narratives are told in the parallel languages of spoken English and British Sign Language, which intersect, diverge and build to create a mesmerising mix of verbal, visual and physical performance.
about the artist
I am a UK theatre-maker, writer and performer. I am interested in creating performance that is challenging and compassionate. I write scripts that are intensively researched and constructed. Inventive in form, poetic in language, full of wit and dead-pan humour. In performance I deliberately strain against the traditional relationships between performer and audience.
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stage dimensions
width: 4 metres
height: 3 metres
depth: 4 metres
We will aim to light the show from your lantern stock.
We require a memory desk with timed subs for preference. We do not tour any LX equipment.
Our technician would like to operate the lighting – if this is not feasible please advise as soon as possible.
A full pre-rig is preferred – please inform us at soonest notice if this is not possible.
There is no amplified sound at all, so a P.A is not required.
“This gracefully intelligent production faces up to so much: trauma, barely articulable feelings, the limits of language. You emerge wondering how a staging so kind can be so devastating.”
“MacLaine's challenging, devastating and devastatingly good piece...raises pertinent questions.”
"How do you make sense of abuse? How do you take it apart to process it? This profound and poetic piece—almost a performance sculpture—makes a start."
This show carefully unpicks the language around abuse and everything that is left unsaid. Its form is in both sign language and spoken language so the show is accessible to a (Deaf) British Sign Language using audience. The official line for publicity is “This show is performed in British Sign Language and English”
Workshops and Panel Discussions
