The Sound of Waves

Overview

Shelly is a normal girl. Normal enough, that is, until she finds herself starting to become more and more fish-like every day. Staying true to her piscine transformation, she takes refuge in the sea, alone. But the sea is no place for a human girl — even a scaly, gilled amphibian-type one who's taken a liking to blowing bubbles.

The Sound of Waves is a fictionalised account of performer Jodie Harris' true story of losing her hearing and getting a cochlear implant. Written bespoke for her to perform solo by Gareth Ellis, the production is a whimsical, affirming tale six years in the making. Harris, a deaf actor, admits she was worried about performing it. But the oh-so-precious, encouraging words of the Weedy Seahorse — one of her multitudinous characters in the play — got her through that: "I can do this, and that — check it out! I can do this."