The company Ça Marche is presenting Trabajos forzados, a stage project which they have worked on as Azkuna Zentroa Associated Artists.
Trabajos forzados is a stage experience that talks about language and communication. Deaf performer Pepita Cedillo tells stories in Catalan Sign Language (CSL), accompanied by a CSL interpreter, who not only translates but also becomes an active part in this work. It is an immersive experience that invites both the deaf and hearing communities to participate in this singular experience.
In this work, Ça Marche proposes a reflection on how Western civilisation has prioritised orality, imposing it as the dominant form of communication, and seeks to explore the experience of those who are forced to relate to speech in a different way.
Oliver Sacks says that “language users tend to have a naïve realism, because they tend to see their language as a reflection of reality and not as a construction.” According to the creators, “We often refer to those who use voice as speakers, as though there is only one possible form of speech which does not include sign language because it is the language of the deaf”.
As part of Prototipoak Bilbao, the International Biennial of New Artistic Forms at Azkuna Zentroa, this unconventional theatre performance takes the audience on a journey away from “the paternalistic, the pedagogical and the pornographic” to access not only another form of communication but also another form of sensitivity, “a more corporal way of being”.
As usual, Ça Marche involves non-professional performers in this work, in this case from the deaf community, who put more emphasis on the specific body, far from convention and physical tradition, which prioritise standardised voice and movement.
Throughout the process, the company has established relationships with numerous deaf people associations, institutions and companies that are doing their own work and developing reflections on accessibility. The aim is to use Trabajos forzados as an opportunity to develop spaces, projects or contexts involving the deaf community “that can broaden the experience and its future footprint as much as possible”.
Following the premiere, a meeting will take place in which the company will share with the audience the process involved in creating this play.
Description:
It all started with a question that came about from thinking about great figures throughout history who chose silence, not to speak anymore, not to write anymore, not to act anymore, not to be anymore: Empedocles, Kafka, Hölderlin, Beckett, Rimbaud, etc. The question arises when one thinks not about elective silence, but about imposed silence and what happens there. The project involves the deaf community of Barcelona, who actively participate in the creative process. Trabajos forzados invites the spectator to go on a sensory journey, questioning the imposition of orality in our civilisation and how language is inscribed in our bodies. More than a conventional theatrical performance, the piece proposes a profound reflection on the accessibility and understanding of other forms of communication, far from the paternalistic and pedagogical.
