C hildren o f a
Lesser G o d
b y J im A n c til
C h ild re n o f a Lesser God, by Mark Medoff,
is playing at the Sumus Theatre. This is
welcome news to those who missed its run
recently at the IFCC. That production, origi
nally directed by Rollie Wulff and produced
by Gary O ’Brien, has now been remounted. It
is directed by Hank Stack (noted for his work
with the Northwest Theatre of the Deaf) in a
new location at the Sumus Theatre, 13 N.W.
13th. This revival utilizes all the original cast
members, who have now had the advantage
of playing together for some time. They are
superbly at home with the play and their
characterizations. In this new production they
have achieved even more depth as well as
sharper delineations of character.
This play should be of considerable interest
to the gay community for several reasons.
The play has won numerous awards, includ
ing a Tony and the Critics Circle award in New
York. The Portland production of this
important play gives us the opportunity to
examine in detail how a minority, in this case
deaf people, are treated by the larger society
and how they develop their own sense of
identity. There are several themes in the play
which apply directly to the gay experience.
This production is designed to be entirely
accessible to both the deaf and hearing
members of the audience, as all dialogue is
both spoken and signed simultaneously. For
those who have never had the chance to
appreciate the beauty of American Sign
Language, this is a unique experience.
Briefly, C h ild re n o f a Lesser God is the love
story of James Leeds (Sam A. Mowry), newly
employed speech therapist at a residential
school for the deaf, and Sarah Norman
(Georgi Randall), deaf resident at the school
since childhood, first as a student and later as
a maid in the dormitory. James tries to teach
Sarah to speak and lipread and ends up
falling in love with her. Another student, Lydia
(Kathy Butts-Bemunzio) is very attracted to
James and feels that her ability to speak and
her only partial hearing loss make her more
attractive to him than Sarah. James visits
Sarah’s mother (Betty Brooks) in futile efforts
to understand Sarah’s isolation. Meanwhile,
Orin (Gary Holden), a hearing-impaired stu
dent at the school who speaks and lipreads, is
in open rebellion against Mr. Franklin (Jeff
Miller), hearing superintendent of the school.
Orin attempts to draw Sarah and James into
his struggles to have the school employ more
deaf personnel and give the students more
freedom of choice. Orin hires a lawyer
(Michele Fulves) to file a complaint against
the school with the Equal Employment Op
portunity Commission. In the various con
frontations, our interest is kept centered on
James and Sarah as they grow gradually to
understand the meaning of their love for each
other. (Timothy Gero and Paul Bernunzio in
terpret all dialogue).
Gay members of the audience will see how
this deeply moving story applies to their own
experience. Like deaf and hearing-impaired
people, gay people are both a part of and
isolated from the larger society. They have all
the same needs and desires, yet their special
perceptions and needs separate them from
the understanding of the majority. Both
minorities cross all societal lines, existing in
all economic classes, all ethnic and religious
groups. Gays as well as hearing-impaired of
ten pass unnoticed in a crowd and so melt
into the larger society, yet find themselves
discriminated against whenever they are
perceived as different by the society. Their
isolation reinforces their sense of difference
and separate identity, yet at the same time
often undermines their self-worth, their ap
Ju*t Out M ov 1985
preciation of themselves and others. Their
values often seem to run counter to the goals
of society and are often perceived as narrow
or unorthodox, even as a threat to the major
ity. How many gays out in a social setting
have glanced over at the deaf folks and
wondered what it is they could have to talk
about in such an animated and demonstra
tive way? Strange to say, the deaf people are
most likely discussing the very same sorts of
things and laughing at the very same funny
situations that the rest of us are. But because
so many of them have great difficulty speak
ing to us in our language, we tend to leave
them alone.
"Speech is not a specious but a sacred
sanction, secured by solemn sacrifice.’’ This
is a spoken exercise James uses in teaching
Orin to pronounce certain sounds, but it also
states one of the main themes of the play.
Speech is a means of communication, and it
is the breakdown of communication which is
the chief cause of misunderstanding between
minority and majority. Speech should not be
intentionally deceptive, but rather ought to be
considered sacred, worthy of respect and
honored, supporting and encouraging us in
our personal interactions. Communication
also involves a certain sacrifice, both an of
fering and a giving up of a part of oneself to
the other. Both parties have to be willing to
reach out if we are to end our isolation from
the majority (and each other). Are we really
reaching out enough?
The conflicts within the character of Sarah
point up another paradox in our own relation
ship to society. We are often our own worst
enemies. Sarah as a child was diagnosed as
both retarded and deaf, and it was only later
discovered that in fact she was not retarded,
but instead very intelligent It was both her
inability and her unwillingness to communi
cate which held her back. Is this so very diffe
rent from the gay experience? Sarah’s anger
against those around her, particularly those
who wished to help her, only served to isolate
her further. The play begins with her signing
to James: "I have nothing; no hearing, no
speech, no intelligence, no language. I have
only you. I don't need you. I have me alone.
Joined, (I remain) unjoined.”
The tragedy is especially poignant when a
minority discriminates within itself, as for ex
ample, the hard-of-hearing who speak and
lipread feeling superior to and attempting to
control those totally deaf from birth who
neither speak nor lipread. An analogy might
be drawn with white gays who discriminate
against racial minorities even within the gay
community, or those gay men who disap
prove of and avoid contact with lesbians (or
vice versa). Racism and sexism are ugly any
where, but they are especially ugly when they
exist within our own small minority. This also,
of course, supports the attitude of the op
pressing majority population (Franklin in the
play). They would like nothing better than to
see us divided (and squabbling) among our-
selves, thus diluting our power even further.
When it comes time to organize a Lesbian
and Gay Pride March, and the lesbian or
ethnic or older gay or physically challenged
segments of our community do not feel
properly represented, we must know we are
thwarting our own best interests. When the
question of signing at the PGMC concerts
comes up (which no doubt it will again) and
someone objects that we cannot cater to
every tiny segment or disability, I say that yes.
we had better take the trouble and serve
those needs. If we cannot trouble ourselves to
overcome the neglect and discrimination
within our own community, we can hardly be
surprised at the kind of treatment we receive
from the larger society.
The theme of power and control over
others is woven throughout the play. Sarah’s
refusal to admit first her mother and then
James Leeds into her emotional world is a
way of controlling them. It is only through
supreme effort that James finally succeeds in
penetrating her silence (a powerful symbol in
itself). Lydia tries to control James by offering
him easy sex. Orin (whom Sarah refers to as
an "asslicker’’) objects when Sarah moves
across the street to live with James after their
marriage. Orin insists that her marriage is not
as important as deaf rights and solidarity
within the deaf community. He accuses her of
being a phony hearing person. James says:
"It's the oldest trick in the repressed-minority
handbook. He wants you to feel guilty for
leaving the flock." Orin in effect wants to be
"guardian of all the deaf children," one of
several possible meanings of the play’s title.
In the figure of Franklin we see how the
larger society both controls us and gets us to
do its dirty work for it. When James first at
tempts to communicate with Sarah and she
closes him out, they have an argument and
she storms off with him shouting behind her.
Franklin asks him what he's doing, and
James replies he is trying out a new techni
I
^
que. Franklin: "What’s it called — rape?. . .
Mr. Leeds — James — Jim bo, we don’t forni
cate with the students. We just screw them
over. If you ever get the two confused . . .
you’re gone." Franklin manipulates and de
means the institutionalized students under
the guise of protecting them from the world.
W hen Orin brings legal proceedings against
the school, Franklin says: “The commission
will find in their favor they always find in favor
of the downtrodden. Why not? They know
they haven’t got an ounce of legal power.
They're merely one of those liberal showcase
apparatus whose opinion no one is bound to
abide by." He will make Orin and Sarah take
him through the appeal courts for years," ...
because as despicable as it may seem, I won’t
continue in this field if the subjects of my
efforts are going to tell me how to minister to
them.” Gays need to remember this as they
press for congressional passage of a gay
rights bill. They will need much more than a
legal document to protect their rights. One
thing they will need is to build active solidarity
with a ll minority groups.
Another important theme in C h ild re n is
that of closing the gap between us. The
bridge gam e in the second act is a symbol for
the need of the deaf and the hearing worlds to
"bridge" their differences. In American Sign
Language, the sign made by the thumb and
forefinger of each hand joined in two inter
locking rings carries many meanings, de
pending how it is used — join/unite/
connect/share a relationship/to be an indi
vidual yet as one with another person. Com
munication is the heart of the difficulty that
deaf people (as all minorities) share. I say
"heart" on purpose, for it is only here that we
can effectively join together and com m uni
cate. Can we not see the parallels in the gay
experience?
Performances of C h ild re n o f a Lesser G od
continue through May 12th and definitely
merit the attention of all audiences.
So we offer a number of services
Home/Business
Hauling-Large & Small
Lana Maintenance
Errands
Odd Jobs
Recycling
You Name Itl
INT/EXT Painting
Sign Painting
Clean-up
Gutters
Windows
REDBIRD PRODUCTIONS
235-9177
Terri
GAY MEN’S CHORUS OF
LOS ANGELES
Jerry Carlson, Conductor
PORTLAND GAY MEN’S
CHORUS
David York Conductor
in the
ARLENE SCHNITZER CONCERT HALL
C O U N S E L IN G FOR W O M EN
A N D FR IEN D S OF W O M EN
777-6653
1903 S E ANKENY
PORTLAND. OR 97214
Friday,June 28, at 8 p.m.
Tickets
and SI 2
available at C.C Slaughter’s Dugan’s. Forward Ceat I he lYimary Domain.
R oxy Means,The Embers Starke s \Pjggs-n-fYnguins,
and at the Civic Auditonum box office
Signing Provided
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