In an effort to reveal the long-obscure stories of deaf individuals who survived the atomic bombing of Hiroshima (Japan, 1945), performing artist Chisato Minamimura interviewed and filmed individuals to capture their experiences.
In Scored in Silence, she tells these stories and presents fragments of her films in a fifty-minute performance. Using sign language, dance, surtitles, some vocalisation and projections on a screen, Minamimura moves elegantly, often with forceful expression. Pausing occasionally to ask, “Why?” or “How?” she then looks for signs of recognition from the audience.
The storytelling is fluid and easy to follow; there is a narrator reading the surtitles, but there are many times when her communication skills are so thoroughly clear that the narration faded out of my consciousness.
Minamimura goes beyond the immediate horror of the atomic blast and describes how deaf people were left behind by the government after the event and into the period of recovery. Resources made available for the community were not designed for the deaf, so the deaf were essentially left to fend for themselves.
Apart from the experience of living through such a massively traumatic event, the post-event consequences weighed heavily on many levels beyond radiation poisoning. Unanswered questions about what had taken place, financial assistance provided to the community (the ones who could hear the messages broadcast about it) eroded young minds, leaving lifelong scars.
Scenes described by the actual survivors vividly point to the sensory reality of smelling and seeing the remains of disfigured corpses, of not understanding how they had personally lived through the event; post-traumatic shock set in. But the atrocities go even further when, with the belief that deafness is passed on from parent to child, the government decides to start sterilising the deaf in an effort to stop the phenomenon from happening again.
Were this performance presented differently, it could become a complete strain to focus on, but the graceful presentation manages to keep everything buoyant enough not to feel too indigestible. The projections are monotonal, with occasional splashes of colour, and certain peaceful motifs come and go as if to remind us there is not so much anger in all of this; more a telling of certain truths that need to be told. I found it informative, entertaining, and inspired.
Scored in Silence
Until 26th of October, 2024
Space Theatre, Adelaide
Hero image credit: Mark Pickthall. Source: Supplied
