In the middle of “Open Window,” Susan, a psychology
graduate student, quotes several lines from William
Shakespeare’s “The Tempest”: “I pitied
thee, / Took pains to make thee speak, taught thee each hour / One
thing or other: When thou didst not … know thine own meaning …
I endow’d thy purposes / With words that made them
known.” Such is the premise for the Pasadena
Playhouse’s “Open Window,” a production that
partners with Deaf West Theater to present an entirely deaf cast
that communicates almost exclusively in sign language throughout
the production. It will run through Nov. 20. A deaf boy is chained
by his father to a post in a basement for nine years, leaving him
with no exposure to people and no way to learn how to communicate.
Susan (played by Shoshannah Stern) later dubs him “Cal”
in honor of Shakespeare’s savage character Caliban. Cal finds
a way to kill his father and free himself from the basement, and
the state places him in a mental institution under the supervision
of Susan and Rachel, world-renowned linguists, to prepare him to
communicate at his murder trial. Rachel and Susan also happen to
both be deaf. They continually argue over the approach that should
be taken with Cal. Susan feels skeptical that Cal will be able to
learn sign language at all. And worse, if he does, his ability to
communicate may send him to prison, resulting in his own death
sentence. She stresses that the boy needs love and human contact
over communication. Rachel, played by Linda Bove, sees it
differently. She believe’s Cal’s critical window of
learning is still open, and even if it isn’t, she will
“pry it open.” In one of the play’s pivotal
moments, she explains, “The darkest prison that exists is not
being able to communicate.” “Open Window”
succeeds in changing the audience’s perception of language on
so many levels, starting with the script itself. Playwright Stephen
Sacks has created an original script that addresses deafness in an
entirely unconventional way. He does not make the central conflict
about deaf individuals’ experiences in a hearing world. He
depicts his characters as intelligent, articulate professionals,
never questioning their competence. The play also stands out as a
production that was directly intended for deaf actors, not simply a
translation of a play into sign language. As a result, its
characters are well-developed and their deafness adds to their
complexity. The experience of watching deaf actors perform also
transforms any previously held notions of traditional
communication. Although their lines are voiced by non-deaf actors,
they manage to keep their own characters entirely in the spotlight,
proving the powerful effectiveness of gesture and expression. At
one particularly poignant moment, Rachel recounts the experience of
her son’s kidnapping. As she describes her frantic grief, she
begins to vocalize her emotions. Her words may not have been
articulate, but everyone in the audience knew exactly what she was
saying. Ultimately, “Open Window” validates the
opinions of both Rachel and Susan, demonstrating that humans need
language, but they can communicate just as effectively through
love.
““ Natalie Tate