FROM OCTOBER 8th TO 14th, 1969 THE SKETCHES, PRINTS, AND MULTIPLES CRE ATED FOR THEPLAY WERE ON SHOW AT THE ATENEO DE LA LAGUNA

THEATRE BY DEAF-MUTES

I am delighted that my much-admired friend Juan-Germán Schroeder has written - and premiered - a small theatre play for deaf mute actors. The event took place at the Guimerá Theatre in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, the birthplace of the well-known author of “Terra Baixa”

The play has a Catalan connection. Juan-Germán, was born in Pamplona, with a German father and a mother from Navarre, but has always lived in Barcelona, and the stage designer, the young artist Ramon Vinyes, was born in Ribes de Freser. Vinyes created original stage scenery for the occasion made of plastic, unprecedented in Spain.

The stage was superbly served by a cast of deaf mutes, directed by Eduardo Camacho. And, as far as I know, everything has been a great success. The audience enjoyed both the play and the performance. Felicitous encounter between Schroeder and the silent company “Los Ambulantes”.

The audience was made up of deaf mutes and hearing people, who had to get help with voiceovers because they were the ones in a position of inferiority due to their ignorance of sign language.

Silent theatre has never been so close to spoken theatre. For the deaf, courageous and convincing proof that their disability does not prevent them from being useful to society and contributing to the common culture activity.

[...] Now what remains is for qualified playwrights not to turn a deaf ear but to further develop this kind of theatre. It already exists in other countries; if German and Russian deaf mute actors have been able to perform Schiller and Shakespeare, maybe ours will one day dare to perform Lope de Vega and Calderón de la Barca” here.

Diario de Barcelona, 25 October 1969 by Luis Marsillach