Appendix: Easy Read Summary

Appendix: Easy Read Summary This is written by Ruth Townsley and Matt Hargrave About this easy read summary This booklet is about an academic book written by Matt Hargrave. Matt is a lecturer in performing arts at Northumbria University in Newcastle upon Tyne. He has worked with people with learning disabilities, as actors and artists, for many years. He worked very closely with staff and actors at Mind the Gap theatre company in Bradford to do the work for his book. Matt’s book is about theatre by actors with learning disabilities. He has written about the work of actors at Mind the Gap, as well as the work of other actors and theatre companies. It has taken Matt six years to do the work for his book. It is about the length of a novel and takes several days to read. It has lots of interesting ideas, but most of these ideas are very complicated. This easy read summary will tell you about some of the main ideas Matt has written about. A researcher and writer called Ruth Townsley has written the summary, with help from Matt. Mind the Gap theatre company asked Ruth and Matt to write the summary so that some actors with learning disabilities can find out more about Matt’s ideas. Ruth and Matt have tried to write this summary so it is easy to understand for some people with learning disabilities who can read. However, they know that it won’t be right for everyone who reads it. You might need extra help to read and understand the words and ideas. Or you might want to know more about Matt’s ideas and may find this booklet too easy. Staff at Mind the Gap will be able to help you with this. The summary tells you about some of the most important ideas from the book. It can’t tell you about all of Matt’s ideas and thoughts as this would make the booklet too long. So it just covers the main parts of the book, from Chapter 1 to Chapter 6, plus the Conclusion. Matt knows that some people might not like his ideas, or may not agree with them. He thinks that this is OK and may be a good thing. It might help us to talk and think about things that have not been discussed before. 235 236 Appendix Mind the Gap are hoping to do more work to make Matt’s research and writing easier to understand. This booklet is just the start. Chapter 1: Why the Social Model of Disability Does not Work for Theatre Learning disability means different things to different people. And it has been called different things at different times in history. Sometimes it means having difficulty with thinking and remembering. Sometimes it means that other people, and society in general, don’t help you enough. The social model of disability says that all disabled people have a right to be part of society, but there are barriers that stop this. These barriers are known as discrimination. For example, not all information is easy to understand. This can be a barrier for many people with learning disabilities. The social model says that society needs to change, not disabled people. The social model is the opposite of the medical model of disability. The medical model of disability sees disability and discrimination as people’s own problems. The medical model says that people should change, or get help, so they fit into society more easily. The part of the social model that is about making and performing theatre is called disability arts. For the last 25 years, disability arts has been the most important way of thinking about theatre by actors with learning disabilities. Disability arts has questioned why so few disabled people are characters in film, TV, and theatre, or are actors themselves. It expects all theatre by disabled actors to promote the social model of disability and tell people that society needs to change. It wants disabled actors to use their disability, and the discrimination they face, as a central part of the theatre they make and perform. It also thinks that disabled actors should have as much control as possible over how disability theatre is made and performed. Matt says that there are lots of reasons why these things are important. Disability arts has done lots of good things to make a difference to the lives of disabled people. However, the making and performing of theatre by actors with learning disabilities does not always fit the disability arts model. For example, most theatre companies working with actors with learning disabilities are jointly run with nondisabled people. And not all actors with learning disabilities want to do performances that are about discrimination and impairment. But this doesn’t mean their work is less interesting, or less important. Appendix 237 Matt thinks that we need to find other ways of thinking and talking about theatre and learning disability. Thinking and talking about different types of theatre is called poetics. At the moment, the main ways of thinking and talking about theatre by actors with learning disabilities come from the medical model or the social model of disability. Audiences and critics look at the ways that theatre by actors with learning disabilities is made and performed and say things like: • ‘The actors don’t seem like proper actors – they don’t speak clearly and they forget what to do. This is a problem.’ (medical model) • ‘The actors haven’t made up the play themselves – nondisabled people have written the script and are running the theatre company. This is a problem.’ (social model) • ‘We can’t always understand theatre by actors with learning disabilities. We don’t want to criticise the actors, or the theatre companies, as we might hurt their feelings. This is a problem, but we don’t want to talk about it as it’s a bit tricky to say what we mean.’ (medical model and social model) Matt says that we need to find new and different ways of thinking and talking about theatre and learning disabilities. We need a new poetics that supports actors and theatre companies as artists in their own right. They have the right to have their work discussed as deeply and critically as all actors and theatre companies do. Chapter 2: Why Learning Disability Is Valuable and Beautiful in Theatre This chapter is about performances by two different theatre companies. Small Metal Objects, by Back to Back from Australia, toured in the UK in 2007. Hypothermia, by Dark Horse theatre from Huddersfield, toured in 2010. Small Metal Objects involves four actors: two who are learning disabled and two who are nondisabled. Sonia Teuben is an actor with learning disabilities who plays a man, Gary. Simon Laherty, who has autism, plays Steve, Gary’s friend. A nondisabled actor, James Russell, plays Alan. And his friend, Carolyn is played by the nondisabled Genevieve Picot. Both Gary and Steve are drug dealers. Alan phones them as he wants to buy drugs from them. They meet up, but Steve changes his mind about the deal and makes a mysterious decision not to move. Gary 238 Appendix won’t leave his friend, so the deal is called off. Alan doesn’t like this, so he phones his friend Carolyn for help. Carolyn tries to persuade Steve to get the drugs. She offers him sex. But Steve does not move. Alan and Carolyn give up and go away. Gary and Steve are left behind to talk about what has just happened. The action takes place in a busy and real public place. Small Metal Objects has toured train stations, shopping centres, parks, and other urban spaces throughout the world. Matt saw it on Stratford East rail- way station in London. The audience sits on a bank of raked seating and each person has a small set of headphones on which to hear what the actors are saying. The actors have small microphones and speak as they would do normally. Hypothermia involves five actors, of whom one (Ben Langford, who plays Oskar) has a learning disability. The character, Oskar, does not speak. It seems that he cannot make choices by himself, although this changes at the end of the play. Unlike Small Metal Objects, the play is designed to take place in a standard theatre, with a raised stage and hidden off-stage area. The action is set in Nazi Germany during the Second World War. Oskar is a young man with learning disabilities who is in a long-stay hospital. The hospital is run by Dr Erich (played by Bradley Cole). He has an assistant called Lisa (played by Fay Billing). Lisa used to be a patient at the hospital before she got a job there. Many of the hospital’s patients are being sent to a mysterious place called the Hadamar Institute. We soon find out that people never come back from Hadamar because they are killed there. Dr Erich has a visit from his old friend, Dr Katscher (Johnny Vivash). Dr Katscher tells Dr Erich to send seven people to Hadamar to be killed. Two of these are Oskar and Lisa. Dr Erich doesn’t want to send anyone, but Dr Katscher makes him. Dr Katscher says he has to decide whether to send Lisa or Oskar. In the end Oskar makes his own decision to go to Hadamar, so that Lisa can live. At the end of the play there are pictures which show that all the characters have died, in different ways.

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