Brand-new theatre company Fuse Theatre comes to Bristol, Tobacco Factory Theatres for 4-7 September, for the company’s inaugural performances of Follow the Signs, a fully BSL-led hip-hop gig theatre show.
Follow the Signs is performed through BSL, rap, spoken English, movement and creative captioning, to be shared and celebrated by Deaf and hearing audiences together. It tells the story of acclaimed dancer and choreographer Chris Fonseca, from infant-hood when he lost his hearing after contracting meningitis, through a school system unable to value his differences, into teenage years where music and dance entered his life, to meeting Raffie Julien, a mixed-race Deaf woman whose lived experience seemingly couldn’t be more different.
Dancer/choreographer Chris Fonseca, director Harry Jardine and Bristol-based producer Sian Weeding have founded Fuse Theatre to create innovative and groundbreaking British Sign Language (BSL) led accessible and inclusive theatre.
Once upon a time there was a boy from down the road
He contracted meningitis at the age of two years old
His life had been ok but now little did he know
His hearing was to leave him and was due to change his world.
You heard of the 5 elements of hip hop right? Emceeing, deejaying, breakin’, graffiti and beatboxing. Well now it’s time to introduce you to the 5 elements of Raffie. I’m half black, half white. I’m oral and I sign. On top of that, I’m a woman.
Chris Fonseca performs in Follow the Signs alongside the show’s co-writer and director Harry Jardine, with Raphaella Julien and Fleur Angevine Rooth.
“You will be hard pressed to find a show as moving as this one… It is definitive proof that we need many more stories exploring the themes that Fonseca so charismatically raises.” The Guardian (on Follow the Signs at Soho Theatre in 2023)
“Poetic and vibrant… It embodies language in every possible sense of the word. This beautiful, challenging, uplifting show is absolutely worth seeing.” Everything Theatre
“Completely unmissable” West End Best Friend
Tickets: £16/£14, www.tobaccofactorytheatres.com