The Wild Boys

Sun Herald

Sunday November 16, 2008

Jason Blake

The Wild Boys

Parade Playhouse, NIDA

Until November 29

Tickets $15-$30

Bookings 1300 795 012

Critic's rating 6/10

SINCE 1979, the Australian Theatre of the Deaf has fostered understanding and awareness of cultural differences between hearing and deaf communities through its stage productions and work in schools. It also offers annual employment opportunities to deaf and hearing-impaired performers. This year it has lost its Australia Council funding.

The Wild Boys is based on a much-told story, that of Victor of Aveyron, the feral child found in a forest in southern France in 1797.

Despite the fact that he could hear, Victor was taken to the National Institute of the Deaf, where a young student scientist, Jean-Marc Itard, attempted at great length - and failed - to teach the boy the rudiments of oral language. Woven with that story is that of a deaf youth emerging from the contemporary urban jungle of western Sydney whose instincts and experiences mirror Victor's.

Caroline Conlon's production (featuring Darren Green, Alex Jones, Russell Smith and Alexandria Wailes, with a live score by ukulele goddess Rose Ertler) marries elements of sign language and dance to critique the cultural primacy of oral language over sign.

The result is an intensely physical hybrid that makes its point clearly but only intermittently engages on a dramatic level over its 70 minutes. JB

© 2008 Sun Herald

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