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Last night I went to The Royal Court theatre in central London to see Tribes by Nina Raine. She has won several awards and previously wrote a play called Rabbit.

Why did I go and what does it have to do with Ouch?

Well, the play is about a family - mum, dad, daughter and two sons, one of whom is deaf. It's about the interaction between the family members and how they cope with outside influences such as work, creativity and love. There's a bit of drug taking too.

Jacob Casselden plays Billy, one of the sons. And yes he's deaf. He speaks and signs throughout the play. On the night I went there were subtitles too so I could check whether he was getting his lines right :-)

Michelle Terry plays Sylvia, Billy's girlfriend, who comes from a deaf family and is now losing her own hearing. She introduces him to sign language.

Ok - let's tackle the issues bit and why it's worth seeing. It got me thinking about:

What is it to communicate with someone else - whether through written or spoken language or signing?

How often do we really understand that communication? Are we actually constantly struggling to 'get' other people?

How do you bring up a deaf child? (I'm going to leave that one hanging because the play explores it much better than I could)

Whether the deaf community is "hierarchical" as one of the characters suggests? What do you think?

Interesting? Provocative? Challenging? Different? A bit like Ouch then?

Worth seeing?

You bet!

Tribes by Nina Raine is until 13 November 2010.

Read Charlie Swinbourne's of the play.

Tribes was featured in episode 12 of The Culture Show.