Wednesday, March 5, 2008

New play combines sign language, Sanskrit, spoken Engish and email


Actress Alexandria Wailes in "Love Person."

Playwright Aditi Brennan Kapil creates what is called "a language-laden love mystery" in her new play, "Love Person."

Playing at the Mixed Blood Theatre in Minneapolis until March 22, the play is described as "an intellectually intriguing drama about language as a portal and barrier to human connection in which love transcends sexual orientation, physical attraction, and social structure, and rests instead on the ways in which people communicate. Two couples, three cultures, and four languages blossom, break, sustain, repair, and flourish in this polyglot play."

"Love Person" has garnered an excellent review in the Pioneer Press. Its theater critic Dominic P. Papatola says the play "starts with a standard pair of interlocking love stories involving mistaken identity. But she populates her tale with a lesbian couple — one of whom is deaf — a scholar of Sanskrit and a bad-man-magnet of a woman who thinks she's finally found The One. And then Kapil proceeds to unspool her story using the classical language of India as well as spoken English, American Sign Language and e-mail messages."

The production features highly regarded deaf actress Alexandria Wailes, who is profiled in a March 3 Star Tribune article.

The production is accessible to deaf and hearing audiences.