Deaf as a Post – Barons Court Theatre, London

Writer: Shaun Blaney

Director: Emma Copland

Deaf as a Post is a slyly funny, science fiction dystopian piece that deals with issues of hearing and the hard of hearing.

Set in a future London, law and order is suddenly brought down by a mysterious illness which turns people into herky-jerky zombies known as ‘loopers’. Small-time professional runner, Goody, finds himself the secret weapon against the loopers when his high-frequency hearing loss makes him immune.

The first scene takes place before the outbreak, with Goody going to pick up a coffee. He adjusts his hearing aids, making the background noise of the cafe too loud or too muffled. As the barista moves about to make coffee, sometimes her lines are perfectly intelligible and sometimes a nonsense that almost sounds like what it’s supposed to. When the coffee machine is steaming, the theatre is filled with feedback and when he switches his hearing aids off, her conversation becomes the ‘wob wob’ noise favoured by the adults in Peanuts. It marvellously introduces the audience to the aural rules of the piece, how sounds and dialogue are distorted, sharpened and made painful by different settings on Goody’s hearing aids.

It’s worth listening to the whole play carefully, as there are many occasions where Goody is not perfectly placed to pick up exactly what another character is saying, and so they say almost intelligible gobbledegook. One character states that “it’s Danger Mouse out there”, another that they expect “no fanny biscuits” and that their mission is to “shave the world”. There are many of these mishearings throughout the play and they are not only fun to catch, but firmly root the audience in how Goody experiences the people around him.

When the outbreak occurs, Goody is press-ganged into a military unit and told the only way to defeat a looper is to shoot them. This leads to a number of action scenes where Goody and Co take out snipers, blow up bridges and fight through looper-infested streets. With the smoke and laser sound effects, these scenes have a slight computer game/ laser quest element to them but the hinted-at-action spills over into the silly when they use a tripod as a super-hi-tech laser gun. This does mean that when comrades fall, the emotions don’t strike as hard as they may want to.

In between the action scenes are flashbacks of Goody’s vetting, training and bonding with other recruits. Hamish is a cynical Scot who feels used by the military and Chucky is a by-the-book soldier who has the time and respect to learn sign language. There’s also a snooty army boss whose accent causes the most misheard words. These and other characters, played by Victoria Johnston and Nuala McGown, are a little broad and cartoony but they convey everything they need to. Shaun Blaney’s Goody has a little more depth, gaining confidence, skill and courage as the play progresses.

Deaf as a Post is a play that deals with issues of hearing and deafness with a brilliantly thought-out soundscape to match. However it’s far from an issues slog, heavily livened up by a zombie apocalypse, a tale of war-buddies and a clever script.

Runs until 20 April 2024