This inventive Edinburgh festival adaptation of Chekhov’s The Seagull uses Flemish and British Sign Language to make familiar material feel immediate and physically charged. Its near-silence, broken by breath, anguish, gunshots and occasional speech or music, gives the production unusual force and highlights the expressive power of its mixed D/deaf and hearing cast.

Directed by Stijn Van Opstal for Belgian companies Toneelhuis and Olympique Dramatique, the two-and-a-half-hour production begins with 30 minutes of signing supported by screen translations. Strong performances, especially from Yana Wuytjens as Konstantin, Sofie Decleir as Arkadina and Lobke Leirens as Masja, are offset by an excess of theatrical devices; the reviewer finds some freezes, surtitles and the title’s square brackets confusing and unexplained.