Performed by an ensemble of d/Deaf and hard of hearing performers, THE MILAN CONFERENCE will utilise Auslan, subtitles and audio description to restage the 1880 event for the 21st century. Taking cinematic influence from courtroom dramas such as 12 Angry Men, Anatomy of a Fall and A Few Good Men, the work will utilise excerpts from primary sources related to the conference alongside narratives of the performers’ own experiences of d/Deafness. These real moments will be cheekily mixed in with imagined ‘historical’ scenes between the conference participants. Audiences can expect cracking dialogue, witty retorts and infuriating bureaucracy—all performed in Auslan and interpreted live.

WHY?

Since early on in our work, we’ve prioritised accessibility. We all undertook Audio Description training together with Vitae Veritas and now provide Audio Description services in-house for all of our shows. We’ve also built a rewarding relationship with Jenn Maclaughlan and Will Tapp who have provided Auslan Interpretation for all our productions in Sydney and Wollongong. However, we recently began thinking about the problem of accessibility services only being offered on one night of a season. In this way, however well intentioned, services are a little ‘tacked on’ to the show. We wondered if there was a way of centering the act of interpretation and accessibility within the dramaturgy of the work. If we could make a show that used Auslan as its primary language, what kind of show would that be and what story would it tell? 

Our company member, Steve, has strong memories of his Mum attending Australian Theatre of the Deaf shows. This led him to begin learning Auslan in his late 20s and during his TAFE course, he learnt about the significance of The Milan Conference—the 1880 conference on Deaf Education that determined sign language shouldn't be taught to Deaf pupils. This provided a kernel for the show. Could The Milan Conference be restaged with a group of d/Deaf and hard of hearing people to redress the imbalance of its Oralist bias? We imagine a cast of Auslan users and learners finding their way through the material. Alexander Graham Bell’s words repurposed in Auslan and interpreted or projected as subtitles. A NEW Milan Conference that actually represents the community it affects.

While the conference in question was held nearly 150 years ago in another country, it represents a rupture in the history of d/Deaf culture worldwide and holds deep resonance for many Australian stories within our local d/Deaf community. There are 10,000 native speakers of Auslan in Australia. 3.6 million Australians have some form of hearing loss. By 2060, that’s estimated to double. We are making THE MILAN CONFERENCE alongside and for this community, to ask questions of our wider audience about consensus. Who is in the room when decisions are made in Australia? Why does crucial decision-making still exclude the people for whom the decision is most relevant? How does this keep happening? What will the world look like if this stops happening? Asking such vital questions will enact an allegory within the work regarding expansive hegemonic problems that concern an array of subjugated communities in Australia on whose behalf decisions are made by non-community members.

THE MILAN CONFERENCE was a moment in history that profoundly impacted d/Deaf people. The story of this impact is clearly theirs to tell. But it is also the story of how a group of hearing people, believing they were acting in the best interests of Deaf people, perpetrated a horrendous misjudgement. These were educators who worked with Deaf students every day, mostly well-meaning people who had dedicated their lives to the education of the Deaf. How could they fail to recognise that the consensus reached at the conference was false, as it excluded the very people for whom they claimed to be acting?

In this way, THE MILAN CONFERENCE is also a story about hearing people. About audism, and the way in which it is taught, learnt and perpetuated by hearing people. It’s a story about the systems that privilege one culture over another one, and about the ways in which personal actions prop up these systems. If this project is to truly grapple with the event in both content and form, we must be incredibly vigilant not to repeat the same violence, exclusion and ‘speaking for’ that The Milan Conference represents to the d/Deaf community. We hope that through consultation, collaboration and play, the combined team can all undergo a process that honours the complexity of the story, without blundering into its traps.

TEAM

The work will be made collaboratively between re:group and members of the d/Deaf and hard of hearing community, as well as Auslan Interpreters

The cast and creative team is currently comprised of Demon Derriere, Dion Galea, Bedelia Lowrencev, Jeremy Lowrencev, Jen Maclaughlin, Ana Maria Belo, Tony Nicholas, Mark Rogers, Josh Sealy, Will Tapp, Lauren Toni, Solomon Thomas, Steve Wilson-Alexander, Malcolm Whittaker, Carly Young.

PLANS

Our process for the making of THE MILAN CONFERENCE commenced in early 2025 with roundtable discussions with community members to reflect upon the on-going resonance of the original MIlan Conference in Australia and to map out the best practice for working together on the project.

Documentation of this initial research and community engagement process will be added to this webpage as it continues to unfold.

We will then commence a first stage of formal development ‘on the floor’ together at The Rex Cramphorn Studio at University of Sydney across the month of September 2025, with the confirmed funding support of Create NSW.

Dion Galea - Letter of Support