Sign: A larp about being understood

20 May 2018

Sun 20 May, 2.30 –  4pm
SPACE Mare Street
£6/4 Sign up here

All welcome, no prior larp experience necessary

Sign is a larp run by Mo Holkar and written by Kathryn Hymes and Hakan Seyalioglu. It is set in 1970s Nicaragua where there was no form of sign language. If you were deaf you had simple gestures with a trusted few, likely nothing more than a form of pantomime you negotiated with your family to meet basic needs. In 1977 something happened. Fifty deaf children from across the country were brought together to an experimental school in Managua. Without a shared language to express themselves, the children did the only thing they could­—they created one. In Sign, we follow a small piece of their journey.

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No experience of larp or movement-based practice is necessary to take part. Play is suited to all levels of physicality, but if you have any specific needs please contact the gallery in advance. Please dress in clothes you are comfortable to move around it.

Larp is originally an acronym for Live Action Role Playing, but today it’s used as name in itself. It refers to an interactive activity where people immerse themselves in fictional worlds to experience how others might live. Larps are played by groups of 2 or more people facilitated by a games master whose role is to ensure the players feel safe, understand the rules, roles and fiction within the larp.

Nordic Larp is a school of larp design originating in the Nordic countries and is one which values immersion, collaboration and artistic vision. This larp event is of the Nordic school.

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Mo Holkar is a larp designer and organizer from the UK. His chamber larps have run in the UK, Australia, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden and the USA. He has written and presented about larp in international fora, and works actively to develop awareness of larp among practitioners of other related creative forms. Mo is an editor at nordiclarp.org, is an organizer of The Smoke: London's International Larp Festival, is on the bid and safety committees of Consequences, and is an organizer of The Game Kitchen.

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Best Free Game, Indie RPG Award Winner
Most Innovative Game - Runner Up, Indie RPG Award
Game of the Year - Runner Up, Indie Groundbreaker Award
Golden Cobra Challenge, Honorable Mention

"Sign dares to take up a difficult subject, and have players understand a small part of a real journey that transformed thousands of lives. It centers on agency, connection, and the struggle of understanding each other in a silent world."
-- Golden Cobra Panel of Judges