A new version of Jonathan Larson’s rock musical Rent explores the isolation and prejudice that deaf and hearing communities faced during the HIV/AIDS crisis of the 1980s. Scenes from Rent – A Staged Performance will be shown at Curve in Leicester next month as part of the theater performances New Work Festival showcasing Midlands artists.
For director Lilac Yosiphon, the context of Rent lends itself to new considerations from a deaf perspective. She said one of the challenges during the HIV/AIDS crisis in New York was the lack of access to information. “The deaf gay community had even less access to information because it was not available in American Sign Language,” Yosiphon said. “This suggested to me that there is a way to look at (and ask) the characters: What would the world of Rent look and feel like if the community included deaf and hearing characters, instead of just hearing characters?”
Larson’s musical is inspired by the opera La Bohème and is set in an artistic community in New York’s East Village. It became an Off-Broadway hit and premiered on Broadway in April 1996, three months after his death from an aortic dissection at the age of 35. Rent won four Tony Awards and the Pulitzer Prize, all awarded posthumously.
The new production focuses on specific parts of the musical and brings together key songs including Seasons of Love and La Vie Bohème. It will be bilingual, performed in British Sign Language (BSL) and spoken English. “Language has the power, and we are changing the power dynamics within the piece and its creation process, from English as the dominant language with BSL added, to bilingual work where BSL guides the process and artistic choices,” says Yosiphon, who is also artistic director of the ensemble Althea Theater. She highlighted how BSL has been suppressed as a language, with deaf people instead encouraged to use their voices or lip-read, affecting access to everything from healthcare to education.
In Scenes from Rent, several characters will be deaf, including the lead role of Mark, a documentary filmmaker. “Each character’s communication and gestural styles are rooted in their character traits and we explore the nuances of this when it comes to their communication with others,” Yosiphon explains. “For example, is BSL the character’s first language? Did they grow up primarily in a hearing community or in a deaf community? How do they prefer to communicate? Those questions will inform the artistic choices we make about how each of the characters uses BSL.”
The play features an ensemble cast of deaf and hearing actors, reflecting Yosiphon’s choice to reimagine the characters as a deaf and hearing community. “My work as a director often explores the theme of belonging,” she said. “Now is the time to give deaf artists more agency and opportunities to take up space and share their artistry and skills so they can feel at home on our stages.”
During this process, both the working methods and the materials were examined. “Ensuring that the space is safe and nurturing so that people can fully engage in work and collaborate is critical,” Yosiphon said. “Every deaf artist has different interactions with music and some of the time will be spent exploring that as well.” She wants to challenge the misconception of deafness and musicality as binary ideas, and instead recognize that there are many deaf artists and audiences with a passion for musical theater.
“I hope the piece will send a message to audiences and the theater community that it is essential to revisit these great titles in a bilingual way,” said Yosiphon. “It has value for both hearing and deaf communities in understanding each other’s cultures and identities. I hope it enables more conversations about deaf work and working with deaf artists in mainstream theatre, and that audiences feel seen, recognized and as if their experience is recognised.”
Above all, Yosiphon hopes the audience leaves the theater holding on to Larson’s message: that there is “no other day than today.” She added: “Live every day as you are, for as long as you have it, with the people you love.”