deaf actor nadia nadarajah as celia and guildenstern in the globe’s current productions of as you like it and hamlet
There are frequent discussions about the shape of both plays, with two British Sign Language interpreters enabling deaf actor Nadia Nadarajah to be fully involved in the room and, later, on the stage. “For my characters, Celia and Guildenstern, we had to work out what kind of language those characters would use,” Nadarajah says. “In As You Like It, Rosalind and Celia have grown up together. They would have a specific way of communicating with each other, a style that would only be recognisable to those two.”
Over time, the rapport among the ensemble has meant “the interpreters have become, in a way, brilliantly obsolete because I’m able to get by without them,” Nadarajah adds. She says the ensemble has been working with three languages – Shakespeare’s English, modern English and BSL, which the hearing actors integrate into their performances.
