Review: Inventive one-man show explores the uncertainty of identity on Coventry stage

It is more prevalent than ever to put people into groups, which has the side effect of saying “are you one of us or are you other?” Rinkoo ‘Roo’ Barpaga was deaf from birth, a child of Indian parents from East Africa who had relocated to Birmingham. This one-man show is his journey trying to find who he is and where he fits in. The audience could either interpret his signing or follow captions on their phone, or there was a speaking actor at the side of the stage voicing his signing.

Through a very clever combination of miming and signing, Roo revisits his childhood in Handsworth where he experienced mockery at school and racism within the deaf community, a topic he addresses later as a film maker. The Deaf Club in Birmingham would not admit him because he was of Asian heritage, yet the all-white Deaf Club in Newcastle was incredibly welcoming and the outing to the pub with a roast dinner and beer made him realise what being British was.

His sense of dislocation is heightened when he visits relatives in the Punjab as he wrestles with whether he is Indian or British, a feeling that many children of immigrant parents have.

On a bare stage using only an upright chair for a prop, with wonderful facial expressions, he enacts scenes of fear, frustration, anxiety, anger and delight. Through this autobiographical play Roo cleverly conveys the uncertainties that most people have, whether hearing-impaired or not. That is not to lessen the struggles he had and the frustration he has faced, but Roo portrays precisely the human condition. He admits his ongoing internal battle of being from here but not from here. The director Tyrone Huggins and Dramaturg Daniel Bailey have done an excellent job in making this play accessible to all and it deserves a wider audience.

The play runs until October 11. All performances are in BSL, Spoken English and Closed Captions. It is recommended for ages 14 and above. Visit belgrade.co.uk to book or for more information.