A Review of Giving & Taking Voice in Learning Disabled Theatre
Reviewer David O’Donnell reflects on author Tony McCaffrey’s book Giving and Taking Voice in Learning Disabled Theatre, featured in the journal Australasian Drama Studies, October 2024.
Giving and Taking Voice in Learning Disabled Theatre provides an in-depth, analytical study of Different Light, the theatre company established by the author Tony McCaffrey in Ōtautahi/Christchurch in 2004. It builds on the work of McCaffrey’s previous book, Incapacity and Theatricality: Politics and Aesthetics in Theatre Involving Actors with Intellectual Disabilities (2019), which uses international case histories to theorize the work of ‘disabled’ theatre makers.
In his introduction, McCaffrey acknowledges the difficulties of defining ‘disability’, acknowledging that ‘learning disabled people’ is a placeholder term (31). McCaffrey argues that learning disabled theatre companies are ‘not merely increasingly present’ but ‘flourishing’ in the twenty-first century, and he provides a useful stock take of international learning disabled theatre companies, addressing the significance of learning-disabled people being ‘increasingly present as artists’ in contemporary theatre (1).
“McCaffrey argues that learning disabled theatre companies are ‘not merely increasingly present’ but ‘flourishing’ in the twenty-first century.”
As a non-disabled theatre director, McCaffrey is acutely aware of the tensions involved in his writing on behalf of the artists of Different Light. Therefore, he makes every effort to ensure that the artists’ voices help to shape the book’s narrative, providing extensive quotations by Different Light members sourced from archival recordings. These voices vividly illustrate the artists’ diversity of experience, their wit, their intelligence, their subversiveness and their desire to lead autonomous lives. McCaffrey explores the many resonances of giving and taking voice, demonstrating how theatre can provide a platform for the ‘voiceless’.
Although other non-disabled artists have contributed to Different Light over the years, McCaffrey is the Artistic Director and the only one who has been involved with the company throughout its entire history. He acknowledges the tensions implicit in non-disabled facilitators making work with disabled performers, emphasizing that it is a two-way process of ‘co-creating and learning from learning disabled artists’ (5).
He presents an honest, self-reflexive account of his leadership of the group, including a number of occasions when he has been ‘called out’ by participants (87–8). Throughout the book, McCaffrey productively balances his autoethnographic approach with theoretical discussion, employing Jacques Derrida’s juxtaposition of hospitality and hostility to dig into the paradoxes of learning-disabled performers being welcomed into the theatre world where they become ‘uneasy guests, uneasier hosts’ (187).
He argues that inclusion and access are difficult to achieve because the hospitality offered to learning disabled people is inflected with ‘a deep hostility’ (53), suggesting that the conventional Western drama school, with its assumptions of normativity and requirement for physical and vocal ‘excellence’, is inherently hostile to any form of disability.
McCaffrey takes care to introduce key company members individually, providing vivid portraits of each person and explaining their creative input in various productions – for example: the showmanship of Matthew Phelan; the ‘hot-fire’ energy of Ben Morris; Shawn O’Rourke, who was fascinated with the role of the theatre technician; Glen Burrows, who brought great mana and commitment to the group despite being wheelchair-bound and having difficulty with speech; and Isaac Tait, a talented visual artist and poet.
“Their diverse voices and experiences demonstrate that they are not a homogenous group, and show that they cannot and should not be defined by their disability.”
Their diverse voices and experiences demonstrate that they are not a homogenous group, and show that they cannot and should not be defined by their disability. McCaffrey also examines the changing gender dynamics of the company, when female performers began joining what was originally an all-male group. McCaffrey acknowledges the problems of integrating learning disabled women into a company that had established a ‘blokey’ culture based on masculine humour. I would have liked to see more focus on the female performers such as Josie Noble (who appears on the book’s cover), Biddy Steffens and Angie Douglas, all of whom McCaffrey writes were ‘influential’ on the company’s development (95).
He does, however, foreground the contribution of the late Louise Payne, a former patient of Christchurch’s Sunnyside Hospital, who was an engaged feminist and political activist. With her ‘distinctive voice, with its mixture of humour and pain’, Payne had a strong impact on the subsequent development of the company (89).
In the first chapter, McCaffrey provides context and expands on his key theoretical ideas by analyzing The Shadow Whose Prey the Hunter Becomes (2019), a work by the influential Australian company Back to Back Theatre. This critically acclaimed exploration of the rights of disability communities and the nature of democracy, framed as a public meeting, incorporates satire mixed with a sharp and complex political dialectic. In chapters 2 to 5, he provides a chronological account of Different Light productions using thick descriptions to illustrate the evolution of the company’s aesthetic.
In Chapter 2, he explains how theatre workshops he conducted at a residential institution in Christchurch in 2004 led to the creation of Different Light as a ‘mixed ability’ community theatre project, including non-disabled performers. He examines the first three productions, all based on canonical texts: A Different Light (2004), loosely based on Christopher Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus; The Birds (2006), a shortened version of Peter Brook’s The Conference of the Birds; and Dante (2006).
“The show subverts such condescending attitudes towards learning disabled people by using the tropes of border crossings and passports to show ways in which learning disabled people are stigmatized and excluded.”
Chapter 3 focuses on three devised dramatic theatre productions: Ship of Fools (2007), a parable in which the ensemble members play settlers ‘discovering’ a new country; Frankenstein’s Children (2008), in which scientists attempt unsuccessfully to genetically modify human beings in order to eradicate disability; and The Poor Dears (2009), in which a learning disabled group attempts to enter the USA. Frankenstein’s Children was the first production to feature only disabled performers onstage. The title The Poor Dears comes from the irritation of company member John Lambie at being regularly referred to as ‘poor dear’. The show subverts such condescending attitudes towards learning disabled people by using the tropes of border crossings and passports to show ways in which learning disabled people are stigmatized and excluded.
McCaffrey demonstrates how a shift to more abstract, post-dramatic narrative frameworks have enabled the performers to increasingly gain more autonomy in the creative process. Chapter 4 provides an account of three productions which were impacted by the Christchurch earthquakes, as well as attempts at collaborations with other theatre companies.
Through this period, Different Light continued to experiment with form, building on the personal experiences and interests of the performers. For example, The Wizard of Oz (2010) was based on the performers’ responses to the 1939 Judy Garland film, and drew parallels between the tornado in the film and the earthquakes that disrupted the production. The Lonely and the Lovely (2013) presented the earthquake recovery as a soap opera with all of its dramatic twists and ‘heroes and villains’.
Still Lives (2011–12) was based on the personal experiences of three performers and included the intriguing notion of post-quake Christchurch as a ‘disabled’ city. Through his lively descriptions and inclusion of participant voices, McCaffrey brings the performances to life for the reader and emphasizes the ironic symbolism permeating each production. He demonstrates how the politics of disability contributed to breaking down the traditional theatrical hierarchy and presents the performers as genuine artistic collaborators.
“He demonstrates how the politics of disability contributed to breaking down the traditional theatrical hierarchy and presents the performers as genuine artistic collaborators.”
Chapter 5 focuses on Different Light’s shift from theatre production towards performance research, including the group’s presentation of performances and papers at academic conferences, international collaborations, digital performance and re-assessing the work of the company itself. Three Ecologies of Different Light (2016) responded to the deaths of two key company members, Payne and Lambie, allowing the collective grief to be expressed through performance while honouring the contributions of those artists. The History of Different Light (2019) was a reflection on the whakapapa (genealogy) of the company and incorporated material from previous productions.
The final chapter outlines Different Light’s adaptation to the COVID-19 pandemic, during which, like theatre companies all over the world, they relocated to the Zoom environment, including participating in an online festival. The book reveals the great potential of learning-disabled performers to bring their unique stories and perspectives to the stage. It is clear that friendships and lasting relationships have been formed among company members, including McCaffrey himself, who describes himself as an ‘unreliable narrator’ due to his intimate involvement with his subject matter. Yet it is unlikely that a more objective researcher would understand the complexities and nuances of this work, or present such compelling portraits of the learning disabled artists themselves.
In many ways, the spirit and intentions of this book are summed up in the words of an academic paper prepared by Different Light performer Isaac Tait for the 2022 ADSA Conference: ‘Labelling people is not helpful in the long run. Everybody should be allowed to have the choice of what they call themselves. I don’t know what I would call myself. An artist’ (189).
“‘Labelling people is not helpful in the long run. Everybody should be allowed to have the choice of what they call themselves. I don’t know what I would call myself. An artist’.”
Alongside the politics of inclusion and exclusion, there is much poignancy, beauty and love in McCaffrey’s account of Different Light. The final image in his book is not from a production or a conference paper. Rather, it is a beautiful account of the company members ‘walking and wheeling’ together along the streets of Ōtautahi under the Matariki stars.
Whaikaha: The Ministry of Disabled People was established in Aotearoa in 2022 with an official purpose to ‘enable good lives’ for people with disabilities (see: https://www.whaikaha.govt.nz/about-us/enabling-good-lives). Yet, as I write this review, the coalition government elected in October 2023 are making significant budget cuts to Whaikaha and to disability support services across Aotearoa. This book should be required reading for those politicians.
Through foregrounding the voices and artistic journeys of the Different Light performers, this book offers inspiring perspectives on what a ‘good life’ could look like for persons with learning disabilities, what they have to offer to society at large, and the role that theatre and performing arts can play in making this a reality.
