‘A World Without Them’ brings storytelling to a new show about extinction

Ghost River Theatre and Deaf artist Landon Krentz are teaming up on a wordless, movement-driven world premiere at West Village Theatre.

A new Ghost River Theatre production opening this week in Calgary is built around telling big stories without spoken language.

A World Without Them is co-created by Deaf artist and Dora-nominated performer Landon Krentz and Ghost River Theatre artistic director Eric Rose, and it uses physical theatre and visual vernacular to explore extinction across multiple meanings, from the natural world to culture and language.

Rose says the goal is a show that works for Deaf and hearing audiences without putting either experience second.

“What we’re trying to do, which is very rare, is create an accessible experience for both deaf and hearing audiences that don’t compromise either.”

It also seeks to subvert the idea that accessibility has to be an add on to a performance.

“Accessibility is a way to think about how to create imaginative performance,” Rose says. “It is not something that either is pasted on or is something that is an afterthought.

“It has to be something where we actually think about accessibility as, in some ways, as a really incredible provocation or a way of thinking about it in a creative way.”

Krentz’s approach comes from lived experience and years of studying what accessibility can look like in theatre.

“I was not raised in Deaf culture,” he adds, “So I was language deprived in when it comes to sign language.”

Krentz says he left Canada to see more developed access practices in action.

“Here in Canada, it’s not as progressive as they are in the Scandinavian countries and cultures. I needed to go out of Canada to look at what does an accessible practice look like,” he explained.

He’s clear that interpretation can help, but he doesn’t see it as a complete solution for equity in the room because it creates a level of mediation.

“I want to have direct relationship with patrons rather than being filtered through, let’s say, an interpreter.”

A World Without Them uses visual vernacular, a performance technique rooted in Deaf expression. Rose explains that it is “a very culturally specific physical theatre form that has deep roots in the deaf community.”

It is a solo performer art where one person creates a whole world and the characters. It also draws on a cinematic perspective with what Krentz calls a sort of camera logic. 

“Are we doing close ups? Are we doing a panoramic view? Are we looking at the granular detail? Are we looking at the whole picture as to what’s happening in the environment?”

Rose says the show is framed through a character who guides the audience through the idea of extinction and extinction events. Biologically that spans from the end of the dinosaurs to the current extinction event, caused by humans. With a local connection as well, “One of the stories that we tackle is the story of the Banff Springs snail.”

But, culturally the show also touches on the idea of cultural erasure and language extinction.

All without spoken word.

A World Without Them runs at the West Village theatre Feb 6-15. It runs 50 minutes. Tickets can be purchased here.