Can I Start Again Please desiccates and dissects childhood trauma via an exploration of Wittgenstein and semantics. What is being investigated is the power and failings of language – language that tells and hide truths – sparring across the the heard and the unheard, the spoken and the unspoken.
Can I Start Again Please tells parallel narratives in parallel languages (English and British Sign Language) which intersect, diverge and build on each other to create a mesmerising mix of verbal, visual and physical languages to tell its story. The script written by Sue MacLaine is poetic and full of humour and described in The Independent review as ‘…clever, and cleverly constructed…’ It is performed by Sue MacLaine and Nadia Nadarajah (a native BSL user), with a bright, coursing and relaxed reciprocity.
The choreographer Jonathan Burrows provided dramaturgy & direction and Lucy Bradridge, the costumes and visual aesthetic.
Can I Start Again Please from Sue MacLaine on Vimeo.
“…Sometimes a bell rings. It makes you think of bells tolling; maybe also of Winnie in Beckett’s Happy Days. These women are not up to their neck in sand, but in words – words unspoken and unheard. MacLaine’s challenging, devastating and devastatingly good piece… raises pertinent questions. Why do those who have experienced abuse often take years – or even decades – to speak about what has happened to them? Why, when children and adults tell us about what has happened to them, do we sometimes fail to hear what they say? What does trauma do to language?” – Lynn Gardner, The Guardian ★★★★
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