invisible people made visible

7/27/2019 Invisible People Made Visible

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DISABLED RESPONSIBLE ORGANISED PEOPLE

Invisible people made visible

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Acting is a craft, something that (literally) speaks and shapes through words, actions andemotions and garners a reaction good or bad but rarely indifferent. Ultimately a message ismeant to touch something inside, something other than that which can be seen or heard. Farbehind the curtain lie actors invisible to an audience intent on discovery. This echoes a societywhose curtain acts more like a veil. Issues are only made real through tugging at the veil to revealsecrecy, stigma and ignorance. What makes this layer real in the minds of the viewer? Perhaps if we look at the play itself wewill discover something no other platform would be able to deliver. In fact this play was a'Rehearsed Reading', so actors held their scripts in their hands. The elements were, as on moststages, fixed and arranged in a space that made articulation possible. In the play, committeemembers are trying to arrange a fundraising event at the local community centre . The castconsists of members of the community centre committee and some disabled users of the centre.The main character Jake (who has impairments himself) is inspired to apply for a job thatcomes up at the community centre and sees his chance to gain some experience by organising

the fundraising event. It is further complicated by the fact that he has a soft spot for Rachel(active on the committee) and has a best friend also with impairments. Jake and Neil, the bestfriends, are treated with prejudice by a raft of committee members so that Jake feels that he hasto prove himself by organising the prom alone. His detractors include local hero Mark, his closefriend Sarah, Maria and many others besides.In the final outcome the prom goes off well thanks to a little surreptitious help from his guilt-ridden friends. Jake and Rachel are crowned King and Queen of the Prom and Sarah makes analliance with Neil which she breaks in favour of Mark once he is championed again by rescuing

Maria from choking on a chicken nugget!What Miranda Walker, script writer from the Everyman and Rob Surrey (Director ofInvisible People) have been able to convey is the message that disabled people are often notedfor their deficits rather than their assets. Their skills are invisible to the majority of the members ofthe community. In the play, through humour it becomes apparent that what has been secret orstigmatised by many, are skills of a variety and a beauty that need to be made visible. We canlook at secrecy and stigma in two separate parts.2


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Why secrecy? Impairments of all types have historically been subject to an editing in the psychethat is invisible and unique. For instance, only forty years ago the great majority of 'people withdisabilities' (this includes people with severe mental illnesses), were subject to institutions andmarginalisation in a real sense in large buildings. Today instead of thousands of people languishingin hospitals, the vast majority live in the community. However, there still lies a secrecy, anunspeakable truth that this play seeks to dismantle.Why stigma? People with impairments are often marked out as different and seen as incapable ofmaking their own connections, indeed incapable of creating the lines that join their lives together.Again, this play seeks to refute this misconception. What is happening here, in this space, is notonly a performance but people taking charge of their own lives through lines. This 'RehearsedReading' signals to the wider community that people with impairments do not occupy hollow ornegative spaces. Instead we see the opposite; people emerging from behind the veil into thetheatre-goers' gaze.Like the folds that pervade the bottoms of the open curtain there is a complexity and risk of

exposure; the risk of revealing something that at best was in the shadows. The risk is the creationof a halfway house consisting of two dimensional cut-outs or worse - puppetry where lines are likestrings pulled from people intent on keeping a status quo. Here we have a tension that can only beresolved through co-operation at many levels.Looking left to right is different to reading from left to right. However, what if you were asked toread from right to left, to close the curtain and thereby unravel the complexity of folds you wish toexpose? You would have here an option that once again turned the clock back; would close somany conversations and possibilities.Be brave, not all stages are polished! What we have is a hard-wearing surface that is durableand built on a fabric able to withhold the community gaze and critique. Often words becometangled and caught up in the cloth that is secrecy and stigma. Let's project these words beyondthe theatre and out into our neighbourhoods, freeing those disabled by a society who haven't yetheard this message.

DISABLED RESPONSIBLE ORGANISED PEOPLE


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