Deaf history takes the stage – and confronts centuries of violence
Hereditary deafness has been stigmatised as a disease, defect and threat that needs to be eradicated. That is the aim of modern gene therapy, as well. But is that what deaf people themselves want? That question is highlighted in a new production called The Disobedient Gene, which is made by artists who are all signers.
Through the ages, our society has tried to fix and cure hereditary deafness. This topic is addressed in a performance premiering on 22 November at Mad House Helsinki. The Disobedient Gene dissects the bloody history of eugenics targeting deaf people from the 1600s to the present day.
The driving force behind the production is theatre artist Noora Karjalainen, who works at Uniarts Helsinki’s Theatre Academy as a doctoral researcher. She created the piece collaboratively with Ursa Minor Ensemble, and it forms a part of her academic research focusing on the corporeality of a deaf person.
Karjalainen herself is deaf and uses sign language as her first language. The piece was inspired by the motivation to contribute to the public debate that still often addresses deafness as a problem, not as an identity. The performance asks the audience where the disease actually lies: in the deaf population or in society?
“In spring 2024, media outlets ran news celebrating the world’s first successful gene-editing therapy. It was administered to a genetically deaf child who was less than a year old,” Karjalainen says.
The news filled Karjalainen with dread: there was an overwhelming conflict between how she experienced deafness and how deafness is under constant threat of elimination.
“I felt physical pain over how we’re still not given the peace to enjoy our lives as deaf people. I became worried about losing the deaf community as a part of the spectrum of life and different cultures and also about hereditary deafness becoming extinct.”
By then, Karjalainen had already begun her doctoral research and had been working in theatre for a long time. She dug deeper into the topic and came across research papers on gene therapy. Even their titles made her feel sick: “Say no to deafness”.
Karjalainen began toying with the idea of making theatre a space where she could challenge the power relations between the hearing majority and the deaf minority. The performance highlights the power and resistance of a minority: despite brutal attempts at eradication, the deaf gene refuses to disappear.
The performance coincides with the Finnish Government’s ongoing truth and reconciliation process regarding the violations of human rights against deaf people and the sign language community in Finland.
The Disobedient Gene embodies the lived experiences of the deaf community on stage from a deaf-centric perspective: the whole working group is made up of artists who are deaf and use sign language, and the performance is built around the deaf reality.
The group created the performance through devising methods, which means that Karjalainen planned its artistic framework, but it was otherwise a collective effort. In fact, Karjalainen finds that the ensemble acted as her co-researcher.
“We have made a conscious choice not to provide spoken language interpreting at all in the performance. We wish people with full hearing and no sign language skills a warm welcome to the life of a deaf person. I hope that the performance helps people gain understanding and offers them a window to the experiences and culture of deaf people,” Karjalainen says.
The Disobedient Gene
Performances: 22–30 November 2025
Venue: Mad House Helsinki, Lintulahdenkatu 3, 00530 Helsinki
Language: Finnish Sign Language
Concept and artistic design: Noora Karjalainen