Personal

What’s it like to live in a Deaf family, where using sign language is natural, in a society that sees only your family’s disability with voyeuristic curiosity? One of the most poignant, engaging and perceptively funny theatre pieces we’ve discovered in a while, Personal is artist Jodee Mundy’s story of being CODA (child of Deaf adults). Her experience as the only hearing person in a Deaf family — something she first realised when she was lost in a Kmart as a five-year-old — is cleverly portrayed through performance, storytelling, multimedia and animation, all with a lightness of touch that’s truly captivating.

Jodee Mundy is an interdisciplinary artist and cultural leader based in Melbourne. She lives with a chronic illness and identifies as an artist with an acquired disability. Bilingual in Auslan (Australian Sign Language) and English, she is the only person who hears in her all-Deaf family and is a CODA. First presented in 2018, her solo performance of Personal explores the role children of Deaf adults play in paving the way for their family — as interpreter, authority, conduit. It was created with a talented team of collaborators and is presented in two languages via a virtual interpreter.