Slavonic and East European Review

Abstract:

This article considers the history of the Theatre of Sign and Gesture, the Soviet Union's first professional deaf theatre, from its creation in 1957 into the 1960s. It examines the debates over the form appropriate to this innovative new theatre — particularly the tension between the use of classical mime and theatrical sign language — as a means to analyse the discourses surrounding deaf identity during the Khrushchev era. Whilst the more relaxed cultural climate of the Thaw allowed the Theatre to play with the avant-garde legacy of physical theatre and create a space for deafness on the stage, the experience of the Theatre exposes the complexities of Khrushchev-era theatrical engagement, which was torn between a push towards grassroots expression of minority identity and increasing attempts to control and direct culture as a means to build an idealised New Soviet Person.