'Word 7'
Static started with a story. Directors Graham and Jenny met at a party during the Edinburgh Festival in 2005 at which Jenny, who has partial hearing, described her experience of being able to understand about one in seven words spoken to her. She recounted how she received compilation tapes from her partner even though she could not fully hear the songs. And that was the start of Static, which had the working title of Word 7 during the early stages of its development.
A story of love, loss and compilation tapes...
As development continued, ideas around music and compilation tapes gained momentum for both the directors and writer Dan Rebellato.
"We tried various ways into the one-word-in-seven idea during the first workshop but nothing really ‘landed’ for me so I pretty much abandoned it, though I think it lurks behind some of the ideas. The compilation tape was what I really ran with. I think there’s a much clearer emotional charge in the whole idea of someone trying to listen to something she can’t hear and that has multiplied into dozens of images in the play. I would say that the idea of listening to tapes of empty rooms was one of my starting points rather than a development during the project, so bereavement seemed to be an obvious way in."
Dan Rebellato
Over the course of several months these ideas and interests developed into an artistic exploration around deaf perceptions of the world, and how it might be possible to put music at the centre of a show whilst still producing work that would have meaning and relevance for deaf audience members.
