Every Body Welcome: The New Festival Bringing Deaf and Disabled-Led Variety to Camden

Theatre-makers Harry Jardine and Chris Fonseca are the team behind FUSE, a Deaf-led company pushing the boundaries of access and performance. This July, they bring their much-loved variety night A Night In Sign to Camden People’s Theatre as part of Every Body Festival – a bold new season celebrating Deaf, disabled and neurodivergent artists. They spoke to us about building creative safe spaces, rethinking representation, and why karaoke might just be the future of revolution.

Describe to readers who don’t know, what’s a typical evening at ‘A Night In Sign’ like?

A Night in Sign is hosted by the incredible Nadeem Islam who kicks off the night with 15 minutes of excellent stand-up comedy. He gets the audience pumped and ready to raise the roof for our amazing line up. Then, Nadeem welcomes each artist to the stage. In the past, we’ve had comedy, sign-song, sign-rap, dance, Visual Vernacular, poetry, physical theatre, Shakespeare, mask and animation - a true variety showcasing the UK’s most established and up and coming artists. For the 5th July at Camden People’s Theatre we have dance, sign-song, comedy and a very exciting burlesque piece! It’s completely unmissable! Each performance is in BSL with spoken English interpretation, and we try to creatively caption as much as we can too so that as many people as possible can enjoy it simultaneously. 

What drew you to working with Camden People’s Theatre specifically?

Camden People’s Theatre is one of those buildings that feels genuinely welcoming to all. They have cultivated a safe-space to try new things, fail, succeed, learn and grow as artists - this is the most important thing no matter what stage of your career you are. We met Rio Matchett [Artistic Director] in Leeds last year and we immediately got on very well. She’d just found out she’d got the CPT job and we began planning our first collaboration almost straight away. We also just did some Deaf Awareness training with all of the staff there and everyone was so lovely - we cannot wait to work with them all and hope it will be the first of many. 

What do you hope audiences take away from Every Body Festival – especially those who might not usually engage with disabled-led work?

We hope that this festival will open up people’s minds and allow to them to realise the incredible plethora of talent within the Deaf, disabled and neurodivergent communities. Maybe it will lead to people actively seeking more work like this. Or following the career of a specific artist they have been introduced to by this festival. Maybe it will lead to more Deaf, disabled and neurodivergent representation in other areas of the industry. And, ultimately, we hope it will inspire others to make their own work, make their voices heard and stand up and be counted. 

There’s a lot of talk in the industry about ‘inclusion’ and ‘diversity’ – but what real change do you still want to see?

The real change we want to see is more Deaf, disabled and neurodivergent people in leadership roles across the industry. More artistic directors, producers, casting directors, general managers and so on. We need to change the structure of the power pyramid and put more people at the top who truly understand how to create a safe, welcoming and inclusive environment. 

What’s something you’ve each learned from the other, either creatively or personally, since starting FUSE?

[Harry] - Chris has taught me so much but the main thing is how to have a healthier relationship with work. He is so good at switching off in the evening/weekend whereas I would always make myself available to people. I’ve gotten so much better with my work/life balance and for that I am truly grateful to Chris. 

[Chris] - Harry has taught me how to be on it! His work ethic is unparalleled, and I’ve definitely taken that on since starting to work with him. He also has a massive heart and he’s incredibly open and I really respect and appreciate him for that and for showing me how to be the same. 

The festival ends with a party (and possibly Deaf karaoke). What’s your go-to karaoke song?

[Chris] - Vossi Bop by Stormzy. 

[Harry] - Stan by Eminem. 

The ’Every Body’ Festival – a bold, disabled-led celebration of performance, protest and connection will run at the Camden People’s Theatre from 29th June to 13th July. For tickets and more information, visit: www.cptheatre.co.uk/festivals/EveryBody