Thanks to TheatreView for coming to review Where Our Shadows Meet.

‘EXQUISITELY ENGAGING, INSIGHTFUL AND HEARTFELT’

‘As Rose, Thora Hübner offers a master class in non-verbal communication, sharing as much about her thoughts and feelings through the essence of her being as she does through NZSL and mime. Her profoundly truthful manifestations of the ages and stages of Rose’s life so far, delivered with a delightfully light touch, is eloquence personified.

Rose’s well-meaning and ever-loving Dad, who works from home, is embodied with heartfelt integrity by Mihailo Lađevac. His determination that “everything will be fine”, on learning of his baby daughter’s condition, his being stuck in the denial stage of grief at the loss of his wife, and his growing frustration that Rose is not ‘listening’ to him while signing too fast for him to keep up, are expressed with the veracity of commedia conventions.

Cian Parker first appears as Rose’s mother in an opening sequence of tableaus with Dad, as adult Rose looks through the album of photos that capture her parents’ romance, marriage and impending parenthood. These snapshot insights make Mum so real that we can only share Rose’s sense of loss as we realise she has gone. Parker also brings a delicious comic sensibility to the verbal and signing Friend Rose conjures up in her dreams, not least to challenge herself.

Director Laura Haughy, who co-devised Where Our Shadows Meet with the actors, has facilitated an exquisitely engaging, insightful and heartfelt production that, in keeping with the Equal Voices kaupapa, balances NZSL and spoken English. “Not everything that is signed is spoken, not everything that is spoken is signed,” she writes in her programme note, “but overall, the dramaturgies weave together to provide an accessible experience for both Deaf and hearing audiences.”’

You can read the full review here.