KT Tunstall behind new Edinburgh Fringe show about young deaf singer

THE act of singing, both solo and with others, can offer a deeply powerful, glorious release. For many, it’s communication, connection, and a way to express your most profound feelings. But what does it mean to sing if you cannot hear? And can you sing with your body, if not your voice? These are some of the questions explored in The Singer, a highly affecting new gig theatre piece from writer and director Cora Bissett, featuring original music and lyrics by KT Tunstall. Blending spoken English, British Sign Language (BSL) and live music, the story follows Joe, a young deaf artist determined to make music on his own terms, and Andy, a struggling musician whose creative impulse has all but disappeared. “The production of The Singer started as a short film in lockdown, way back in 2020,” Bissett explains of the show’s origins. “I had seen Jamie perform on stage as part of a showcase at the RCS. He was performing a song signed on stage with another guitarist and it really blew me away. He just connected with the music in such an unusual, visceral way and the way that he portrayed that to the audience was so emotional.” That performer was Jamie Rea, a deaf actor whose artistry became the inspiration for Joe. A year after seeing him perform, Bissett successfully applied for Screen Scotland funding and, with insight from Rea, began developing a short film centred on a deaf man who experiences music through sign language. “I pitched this idea of a young deaf man who wants to be a singer but he sings with his hands,” she says. “He sings through BSL but he really feels and conveys music very eloquently and beautifully through his hands.” Developed over months of Zoom conversations during the pandemic, the short film explored the relationship between Joe and Andy, two men whose lives appear worlds apart but whose creative partnership transforms them both. READ MORE: 19 pictures as first weekend of Edinburgh festivals gets underway “Joe is fighting to claim his space in the world and to find his voice, albeit not a voice as we normally understand it,” says Bissett. “And you’ve got Andy – someone who has had a degree of success in the music industry but has completely lost his creative spark and he’s on a mission to find his soul again.” Following the success of the film, Bissett set out to work on expanding the story into a full-scale stage production. And the resulting version of The Singer, which arrives at the Traverse as part of this year’s Fringe programme, is as much about collaboration and creativity as it is about deaf culture and representation. “Expanding the story was fun,” Bissett says. “It’s just really enjoyable having these fictional characters and going, where can I take them?” The answer to this involved bringing in one of Scotland’s most beloved musical talents. For Tunstall, the invitation felt strangely like kismet. “I don’t think there will ever be another project in my life that has so many threads that feel like my own personal experience,” she says. When she watched the original short film, the connections were impossible to ignore. “Busker in Glasgow, deaf person, looping in the show. I mean, it was just everything. It was such a strange personal convergence of things.” Tunstall’s involvement brought not only her songwriting talent but decades of lived experience within the music industry. Bissett was keen to tap into that perspective. “There’s a big subtext in this story about how one survives in the music industry making music,” she says. “And I just thought, who better to inform that and inform the writing process than KT herself.” There were other points of connection too. Tunstall has experienced hearing loss herself and grew up with a deaf brother. “It was so serendipitous,” Bissett continues. “Every aspect of the story really landed for her.” Once Tunstall was officially involved, discussion turned towards the show’s core soundscape, authorship and how music might emerge from the unique partnership between Joe and Andy. “Joe can’t really create melody, but he can create brilliant beats,” Bissett explains. “He also writes brilliant lyrics. So he’s got this book of lyrics and this bank of beats. Then Andy brings his guitar on top of those beats, uses Joe’s lyrics and he brings the melody.” Together, they discover a sound neither could have made alone and Tunstall relished the challenge of building that musical identity. “There’s a bit of reverse engineering in this show because we’re actually watching people writing songs together from scratch,” she says. Part of that involved creating music that felt authentic to both characters. Joe’s contribution is particularly important. Rather than portraying him as a passive participant, the production foregrounds his creative agency. “Joe programmes beats and he actually triggers the beats and he’s doing this live,” says Tunstall. “It really helps you believe that what Joe is bringing musically and creatively to the table is almost more exciting than what Andy brings as a hearing musician.” Searching for a musical shorthand, Tunstall landed on an unlikely blend. “I was thinking about that meshing together of styles, of singer-songwriter with electronic, hip-hop-influenced beats, and I came up with Hozier meets Massive Attack,” she laughs. “So that’s what we went for – Hozier Attack. Or Massive Hozier!” READ MORE: Audience gives verdict on controversial Amanda Knox Fringe show While the production centres on a deaf protagonist, Bissett is adamant that The Singer is not interested in familiar narratives of tragedy or limitation. “One of the things that Jamie and I spoke about a lot at the start was that we do not want this to be a sad story about disability,” she says. “That is not the life that Jamie lives and that is not the life his community lives.” She became increasingly aware during her research that deaf characters are often framed through very specific perspectives. “So often the story is about a hearing person who loses their sense of hearing and the tragedy of that,” she says. “But where are the stories about a deaf person who has been born deaf, who has lived a rich life within their community, with a rich language?” That language, Bissett notes, is central to the production. “BSL is a language all of its own. It’s a language which has its own grammatical structure and poetry and imagery.” The show arrives at a significant moment for deaf representation in Scottish theatre. Graduates from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland’s pioneering programme designed for deaf and hard of hearing performers are beginning to emerge onto professional stages. But, as Bissett notes, barriers remain. “If we don’t find ways to fund this access, then we are losing out on incredible talent in Scotland,” she says. Tunstall hopes the production will challenge assumptions about who theatre is for. “I really hope that this makes creative and production teams realise that everybody wants to see this,” she says. “This is not a show for deaf people. It’s a show for deaf people, hearing people, and everything in between.” Ultimately, though, both artists see The Singer as a story about collaboration. For Bissett, the emotional core lies in what can happen when people make space for one another. “It’s about two people trying to forge a creative partnership and the beauty of that,” she says. “And I think anyone can relate to that. It’s an incredibly empowering thing to just know when it’s time to step back and let someone else take the spotlight and ultimately the end goal can be brilliant for everybody.” That idea resonates far beyond the stage or the rehearsal room. “I think right now, people are being stoked to be so fearful and hateful towards other people who they are being told are taking up their space,” she says. “Our communities are being told there’s not enough space. I believe that’s just wrong. I believe it’s misinformation, which is deliberately stuck in a horrible, divisive rhetoric right now. And so in, in a small way, this play is a big open-hearted generous offer of saying don’t be afraid of sharing your space.” When asked about her hopes for the show, Tunstall emphasises the importance of authenticity. “What I would really like people to take away from it is a really authentic, genuine belief that they’re watching a new collaborative musical act create totally original music,” she says. “I want them standing there going, ‘Fucking hell, this is brilliant,’ and believing in that creative process that they’re watching happen in real time.” For both Tunstall and Bissett, The Singer gives audiences the opportunity to consider how the boundaries we place around art are perhaps more permeable than we imagine. And in this, we come to see that the most powerful voices are not necessarily the ones that are the loudest. The Singer, Traverse Theatre, August 4-30 (not 5-7, 10, 17, 24), various times, then touring Scotland. Share