Follow the Signs – Soho Theatre, London

Writers: Chris Fonseca and Harry Jardine

Director: Harry Jardine

The music is thumping as the audience files into Soho Theatre; we’re dancing in the club before the show even begins, something writer and performer Chris Fonseca loves to do. This sets the mood for an hour-long blend of music, dance, rap, and British Sign Language (BSL) that tells the tale of Fonseca’s experiences as a young Black Deaf man in Southeast London – ‘Once upon a time there was a boy from down the road / He contracted meningitis at the age of two years old’. With buzzing original music, Follow the Signs manages to be moving, informative and playful all in one.

In seamlessly accessible storytelling, Fonseca and Raphaella Julien explore both their experiences of being Deaf and becoming friends through sign and dance, and they are voiced on stage by director Harry Jardine and Fleur Angevine Rooth, respectively. The two couples are perfectly in time with every word, sign and dance move, making the hour fly by with an engaging pace and lively on-stage energy. Captions are projected onto the back wall, but it is hard to take your eyes off dancers Fonseca and Julien as they fill the stage.

It’s a show consumed with fun and joy but candid and moving in its exploration of discrimination and hardships. Recounting the racism and bullying Fonseca received at school opens up a nuanced exploration of the intricacies of being labelled ‘Black and Deaf’ or ‘Deaf and Black’. Often, Fonseca tells us, Deaf discrimination felt secondary – ‘I was too busy being Black’.

Fonseca expresses his discomfort at being forced to find a voice that isn’t his, whether that’s through a patronising school speech therapist or interpreters who are so unlike him. There’s even a bittersweet acknowledgement that even though finding Jardine – co-creator of the show and Fonseca’s voice on stage – is a blessing, he is a white man. Punchlines bring comedy to the production, but when there is sadness and emotion within the light-hearted moments, it is felt acutely.

The accessibility of the storytelling not only opens the production to Deaf audiences, but adds flair. Captions are timed perfectly with the beat of the music (set to excellent original compositions from Yacoub Didi). Lighting (work of Simeon Miller) pulses to the music and adds an ambience to the emotional moments. The projections aid the didactic moments, a helpful visual diagram alongside a rap to teach the audience the BSL alphabet, for example.

The production falters slightly toward the end, mostly because the audience is left wanting more. The didactic moments and diversions from Fonseca and Julien’s story are enjoyable, like the BSL alphabet song, but divert from what the audience is keen to find out. By the end, Julien is just beginning to explore the nuances of being oral and signing, of being mixed-race and female, but past just that statement, we don’t get insight into much more before the show ends. Perhaps it’s just a sign more of these stories need to be heard to fill this void.

Runs until 12 October, then continues to tour