Theatre for Disability Awareness

Posted by Jill Browne Apr 15, 2007

Inside Out Theatre and Sign Theatre Group together presented an evening of short performances called Puzzle Pieces from the Inside Out in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, on Friday, April 13, 2007.

Inside Out Theatre has been operating as an independent company since 1996. Its mission statement is:

"To enable participants with disabilities to enjoy, participate in, and benefit from the development of a training program and participate in the same, culminating in a theatre production."

Sign Theatre Group in contrast is new. Also based in Calgary, Sign is a company of deaf players who perform using sign language and some spoken English.

I sat on the top row of bleachers inside a circus training studio called Velocity Motion Werks Studio, in suburban Calgary, having no idea what to expect. I knew beforehand that the theatre group had something to do with people with disabilities and that was all I knew.

Well, I haven't laughed so hard in a long time. While not all of the pieces were comic, many of them had a delicious funny-serious edge to them. As an audience member I felt the way I sometimes do when watching reruns of the TV show Frasier. There are occasions when Frasier is so pompous and full of himself, that it feels squirmy to be watching - the choice is to laugh at his inevitable upcoming downfall, or to share the pain of his embarassment, even if he himself is too thick to see it.

Inside Out is masterful at the art of integration. In a matter of moments they had erased the line of disability and created a seamless performance. They reinforced my own evolving view that ability and disability are just arbitrary points on a grand continuum, and we all have to do the best with whatever it is we've got.

Some of the skits featured Nicky Peeters as Didi, a flamboyant reporter, who would ask different cast members a few interview questions, like: What's your disability?

The very first interview was brilliant. Didi asked Mike (actor Mike Keir), "What's your disability?" and Mike said, "I love to watch WWE, used to be WWF, on TV." The audience cracked up and the point was made that Mike is first Mike, then a great straight man, then a wrestling fan, and somewhere farther down the list, a guy in a wheelchair.

Every piece was in some way effective at getting the message across, but none of it was didactic or preachy in the slightest. It was funny, entertaining, and engaging.

I loved Wanda Mithaug's performance of a sign poem, The Tree, which was a most expressive piece of dance. It had me almost in tears, except I was afraid I'd fall off the bleachers if I lost my focus.

The Sign Theatre Group showed some glimpses into the daily life of a person who can't hear, and some of the advantages of speaking sign - like, being able to chat in a quiet library, and having a detailed conversation underwater in scuba gear. All done with humour, all genuinely funny. Many of the Sign players are skilled in mime.

Overall, this evening of theatre was genuinely funny. There was no feeling that because the players were disabled, the audience was somehow compelled to be generous with applause and laughter. That would have taken away the whole integrity of the thing. The theatre was entertaining and often humourous because the writing and acting were good, the messaging was effective, and the people on both sides of the footlights were being themselves.

It's too bad more people won't get to see these groups in action, but I hope that there are similar groups elsewhere doing the same thing.

One evening spent watching these performances would be some of the most effective disability awareness training I can imagine.