A new version of Jonathan Larson’s rock musical Rent is to explore the isolation and prejudice faced by deaf and hearing communities during the 1980s HIV/Aids crisis. Scenes from Rent – A Staged Performance will run at Curve in Leicester next month as part of the theatre’s New Work festival showcasing Midlands artists.
For its director, Lilac Yosiphon, Rent’s context lends itself to new consideration from a deaf perspective. One of the challenges during the HIV/Aids crisis in New York, she said, was the lack of access to information. “The deaf queer community had even less access to information because it wasn’t available in American Sign Language,” said Yosiphon. “This suggested to me that there is a way to look at the characters [and ask]: what would the world of Rent look and feel like if the community included deaf and hearing characters, rather than only hearing characters?”
