REVIEW: Stuck with You online at Graeae

Graeae Theatre Company has been producing accessible theatre for many years and its latest offering is a series of short plays written by D/deaf and disabled writers released weekly over a few weeks and available to engage with online under the banner Crips without constraints part 2.

The new series of short plays released online with subtitles cover subjects such as sibling rivalry, and death by post-it notes, and they’re written by writers who have been part of Graeae’s Write to Play programme.

Stuck with you is a short video call between two sisters on either side of a bathroom door in which they explore the relationship between themselves, with their mother and their sister Emma. The conversation exposes the tensions in the family over their individual abilities and success and in dealing with grief. Abi is the younger sister in her twenties upset that she found out that her older sister Sarah, in her thirties, was getting married through another friend’s Facebook page and therefore not convinced that she was first choice as maid of honour. It is clear that they don’t talk to each other as much as they each think they should. It is written by Jessica Lovett.

REVIEW: Good Day Bad Day By Karen Featherstone online at Graeae

Graeae Theatre Companies Crips Without Constraints: Part Two has been showcasing some of the UK’s finest up and coming disabled writers and directors every Tuesday since January 16. Yesterday, February 10, Good Day Bad Day, was released and marks the end of the series. After the success of the first season of Crips Without Constraints, streamed online in Spring 2020, Part Two has consolidated the concept into a simple yet challenging format of five online short plays all innovative, thought provoking and entertaining in their own right. I can say that I have thoroughly enjoyed the privilege to review the majority of them.

Good day Bad Day written by Karen Featherstone and directed by Alexandra Whiteley is a short n sweet, sophisticated concept that offers an insight into the objectification of a disabled body and the continuous inner battle one has to go through to overcome it. 

Using the device of a split screen, a disabled woman played by Cherylee Houston (Coronation Street) is duplicated and shown conversing with herself. The first version of the woman has an optimistic point of view about ‘everyday’ interactions she has had with people uncomfortable or ignorant about her disability and the other has a pessimistic one. There is no right response presented here, just two extreme reactions debating balance amongst inequality.

REVIEW: The Gift online at Graeae

Trigger warning: Themes of sexual assault 

Graeae, the UK’s leading disabled-led theatre company launched Crips Without Constraints, an online weekly series of new works championing deaf and disabled artists, in Spring 2020. Following its success, Crips Without Constraints: Part Two, a series of five new online plays, graces our screens this winter. Each play is not only written and directed by some of the finest up and coming UK talents, but they also star a selection of UK’s first-class performers including; Dame Harriet Walter, Sharon D. Clarke, Mandy Colleran, Naomi Wirthner, Cherylee Houston and Julie Graham. 

The first two plays presented by Crips Without Constraints: Part Two, How do you make a cup of Tea? and Flowers For The Chateau, have been a pleasure to watch. The latest instalment of the series, The Gift, written by Leanna Benjamin, directed by Cheryl Martin and starring Sharon D.Clarke and Saida Ahmed, is no different. The Gift presents a touching and heartbreaking moment between a mother and daughter as they come to terms with the challenges and reality of a situation no family should ever have to deal with. 

REVIEW: Flowers for the Chateaux online at Graeae

Graeae Theatre Company has been producing accessible theatre for many years and its latest offering is a series of short plays written by deaf and disabled writers released weekly over the coming weeks and available to engage with online under the banner Crips without constraints part 2.

Flowers for the Chateau is a short playlet (just 15 minutes long) written by Rebekah Bowsher and is perhaps the most accessible piece of theatre I have ever experienced. Accessed online with clear bold subtitles for Deaf viewers and voiceovers to describe the setting and look of the characters for blind or partially sighted people it enables anybody with access to the internet to engage with the story and demonstrates that emotionally truthful characters can be created in this virtual world.

The story is of two mothers who are meeting each other for the first time via Zoom prior to the wedding of their two children only to discover they have met before many years earlier. Naomi Wirthner (with bleached platinum hair) is the mother, Lisbeth, of adopted daughter Lily nervously waiting to meet the stepmother of Adam who lives in a French chateau. Julie Graham (dark hair and glasses) is Jules, Adam’s stepmother and having given Lisbeth a tour of the chateau is only recognised when she settles in front of the laptop and takes off her glasses. It sets up a tense Zoom call as the two characters explore their past lives and what they have been doing since they last met. The two actresses create believable characters, and a good sense of the heartache and disappointment created by that last meeting. You’ll have to watch to find out more!

REVIEW: How do you make a cup of tea? Online at Graeae

In Spring 2020, leading UK disabled-led theatre company, Graeae launched Crips Without Constraints, an online weekly series of new works championing deaf and disabled artists. Following its success, on January 19, Graeae launched Crips Without Constraints: Part Two, a series of five new online plays. Each work will star a selection of UK’s finest performers including; Dame Harriet Walter, Sharon D. Clarke, Mandy Colleran, Naomi Wirthner, Cherylee Houston and Julie Graham.

How Do You Make a Cup Of Tea? written by Kellan Frankland and performed by Dame Harriet Walter and Mandy Colleran is the first of the bunch to launch. Clocking in at just under twenty minutes long, it is a powerful, frank and necessary expose of issues regarding the representation of disabled people by non-disabled actors in film and theatre. It takes the form of a dark comedy masterfully jostling between absurdity and realism. Frankland ultimately serves up a sobering reality experienced by many.