You Have to Be Deaf to Understand is an immersive performance inspired by the play of the same name written in the 1970s by Willard J. Madsen, Deaf professor of English literature at Gallaudet University. The performance translates and translates Madsen’s verses into stage form, using Visual Sign, a poetic form specific to sign languages that consists of a meticulous physical score in which the performers’ movements are both signified and signifier. Through this poetic approach, the performance signifies by body images that are both narrative and evocative, and can be followed even by those who do not know LIS.
In itself being a translation of a poetic text itself translated into multiple languages, the work also addresses the issue of translation, highlighting how this -from the 1970s until now- has not been innocent.
