Thumbs up : Sister Sarah
Soap Opera Digest, 1988	Home   Cette page en Français

Santa Barbara created a story line involving a character named Sister Sarah. By the way, she was deaf. So was the actress who portrayed her, Phyllis Frelich. No big deal. That's the way Santa Barbara choose to treat the disability and we applaud the move.

Santa Barbara's slimy, Keith Timmons, brought Sarah in for questioning. Did he treat her with kid gloves and gently hold her hand ? No way. Timmons berated, harassed, and hounded poor Sarah. He even screamed at her. The decision to show the confrontation from Sarah perspective - Timmons's big mouth moving, but no words coming out - was inspired. (His only concession to her disability was to bring in an interpreter.) It was refreshing to see Keith treat her shabbily. Since he treats everyone that way, the unspoken message was, Sarah's no different from anyone else.

Sister Sarah could have been played by any actress with the requisite talent; the character's deafness is incidental to her story. It follows that many other roles could easily be cat with disabled actors. Perhaps Santa Barbara's example will inspire other shows to take advantage of these talented, underused performers.