A man smokes onstage under a large screen showing his close-up. Another man stands in the background, watching him. The stage is dimly lit, with scattered props and a blue-lit floor.

Prep School: Deaf Republic

Dead Centre’s adaptation of Ilya Kaminsky’s Deaf Republic – itself a book of poetry structured as a play, with two acts and a list of dramatis personae – is performed in a mix of British Sign Language, spoken English, physical theatre, and captioning. This pair of powerful works explores contemporary political protest, solidarity, and the power of refusal.

SEE THE SHOW

GET INTO IT

BEHIND THE SCENES

Get a look at the rehearsal and development process during Dead Centre’s initial run at the Royal Court in London.

GET THEE TO THE LIBRARY

Recommended readings to get you in gear for the show.

Ilya Kaminsky, Deaf Republic: Poems (2019).
Susan Burch and Alison Kafer, Deaf and Disability Studies: Interdisciplinary Perspectives (2010).
James I. Charlton, Nothing About Us Without Us: Disability Oppression and Empowerment (1998).
Doris Zames Fleischer and Frieda Zames, The Disability Rights Movement: From Charity to Confrontation (2011).
Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice (2018).

READ ALL ABOUT IT

From “Deaf Republic” – MULTIMEDIA POETRY FEATURE

Deafness, here, is an insurgency, a state of being, a rebellion against a world that sees deafness as “a contagious disease.”

NEW YORKER | FEB 2019

Silence That Is Not Silence: On Ilya Kaminsky’s “Deaf Republic”

Kaminsky demands that we reevaluate our own language — about deaf culture, about silence itself — in a time when language in the larger, cultural public square has never been more vitriolic.

LA REVIEW OF BOOKS | MARCH 2019

“Our silence stands up for us”: A Review of Ilya Kaminsky’s “Deaf Republic”

I did not know I craved poetry about Eastern Europe until encountering Ilya Kaminsky’s work.

ADROIT JOURNAL | FEB 2020