‘Sweet Nothing’ Stirs Up Serious Issues on Hearing

Most hearing people think a deaf person would automatically choose to hear, if given the chance, but that isn’t necessarily the case--as Stephen Sachs’ new drama, “Sweet Nothing in My Ear,” at the Fountain Theatre in Hollywood, strikingly illustrates.

Moving beyond the familiar depictions of the enormous gulf separating the hearing and deaf, Sachs’ issue-oriented work is concerned with the ramifications of technology that might actually bridge those worlds. What he uncovers speaks to our uneasy compromises between fundamental human limitations and science that always seems to fall short of its promises.

That core conflict is embodied in the disintegrating marriage between Dan (Bob Kirsh), a hearing technophile, and his wife Laura (Terrylene), a schoolteacher solidly grounded in her deaf heritage. The possibility that a cochlear implant could partially restore the hearing of their 6-year-old son Adam (Gianni Manganelli) forces them to face fears and prejudices they naively thought they’d put behind them. Despite his professed acceptance of the deaf as equals, Dan realizes just how important having a hearing son is to him, with the implicit conclusion that Adam’s deafness is not OK. As Laura and her parents (Bernard Bragg and Freda Norman) sense Adam slipping away from their special world, they grapple with the pride and isolationism of a deaf community shunned by an uncomprehending majority.

The piece pointedly offers a realistic legal resolution to the complex dispute, not a moral one. For how can Dan and Laura do what’s best for the child when they can’t see past their own needs?

Powerful lead performances and Sachs’ careful, lucid framing of the converging issues are guaranteed to provoke both the emotions and the intellect. Yet the battle lines are drawn in heavy-handed terms that sometimes violate the sloppiness of real life. Also, a better-crafted play would find more organic ways of making so many of its points than through artificially pat debate and direct address to the audience.

Nevertheless, Sachs achieves what he sets out to accomplish, and benefits from the visceral impact of a mixed hearing and deaf cast. This necessitates interpreters for both speech and signing, appropriately leveling the playing field for the audience as well--ultimately, both sides are handicapped in the communication department.

* “Sweet Nothing in My Ear,” Fountain Theatre, 5060 Fountain Ave., Hollywood. Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 3 p.m. Ends July 27. $18-$22. (213) 663-1525. Running time: 2 hours, 30 minutes.