This adaptation of Ilya Kaminsky’s poetry collection is “every bit as urgent, humane and moving as the book that inspired it”, said Sarah Hemming in the Financial Times .

Dublin-based theatre company Dead Centre has joined forces with the sign language poet Zoë McWhinney to “deftly” bring the Ukrainian-American writer’s work to the stage. In a “smartly mischievous” opening, deaf actor Romel Belcher introduces Caoimhe Coburn Gray as his interpreter to help make the show “accessible” for hearing audiences.

Set in Vasenka, a fictional occupied city, the narrative stems from a tragic wartime atrocity: a deaf boy is shot and killed by a soldier for failing to follow a command that he couldn’t hear while watching a puppet show. In an act of solidarity, the entire town turns deaf overnight.

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