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WillFredd Theatre’s award winning production of Follow, currently showing at the Peacock stage at the Abbey, explores real-life stories from the Irish Deaf Community, and is equally accessible for both a Deaf and Hearing audience. By using a complex lighting and sound design, as well as Irish Sign Language, speech and surtitles, the audience is immersed with an array of different ways to experience and interpret the stories presented.

The performer and co-creator, Shane O’Reilly, is a hearing child of deaf parents and as a consequence, despite not being deaf, his first language was sign language. Follow consists of fragments of stories, both from O’Reilly’s own life and from those gathered from talking to members of the Irish Deaf Community. We witness a deaf mother who cannot communicate with the paramedics at the scene of an accident; a man who became deaf due to not wearing ear-protectors at work; a child narrating a funny story about getting food poisoning, where the bass-notes of the sound design make the audience feel a rumbling in their own stomach. This patchwork of different stories can at times be a little confusing and feel disjointed, but this does serve to mirror the fragmented nature of communication that is presented on-stage.

At the post-show discussion the creators said that they began the process of making Follow by asking the question: Was it possible to invite hearing and deaf audiences to one production without the need for an external interpreter? By combining so many forms of communication, Follow is extremely accessible. I cannot speak for the Deaf Community, but as a hearing person I certainly did not feel alienated by the integral use of sign language, and I can imagine that a deaf audience member would not feel alienated by the use of speech: the audience is unified through a wealth of communicative possibilities. Something particularly striking, that made the production so effective, was how well suited Sign Language is to theatre. O’Reilly’s physical engagement and multi-faceted method of storytelling makes Follow a delight regardless of how the audience are able to interpret it.

Follow runs on the Peacock Stage of The Abbey Theatre until 6 December.