First produced in 1979, Children of a Lesser God was written specifically for deaf actress Phyllis Frelich, and based in part on her real-life relationship with her husband. In the story, an idealistic teacher at a State School for the Deaf falls in love with a woman who has been deaf since birth. She was once a student there, but is now a maid, and would rather clean bathrooms in silence than learn to speak. But she falls in love with the teacher, and together they have to find a place of communication between the hearing and the deaf, between sign language and speech. Back on Broadway in 2018, Children of a Lesser God is at times funny, occasionally irreverent, but always honest as it challenges commonplace notions of hearing, speaking, and communication.
Children of a Lesser God guide sections
