‘People Of The Eye’ is a wonderfully inventive production, using speech, sign language and captioning to tell the story of a family with a Deaf child. There are difficulties, certainly, but laughter too, like when the sisters have secret signed conversations. There’s a brilliant scene where the audience is taught some simple signs – it’s fun and silly, but deliberately makes us feel awkward at not being understood. Unfortunately, what let this show down is the very thing it is supposed to promote – accessibility. The captions are often obscured by the actors, and the signing done on the floor is useless to all except the first few rows. With better staging, this could be a fantastic production.

Northern Stage at Summerhall, until 27 Aug.
tw rating 3/5