Crips without Constraints: A Play, A Podcast, A Picture - William Russell

Graeae, the United Kingdom’s leading disabled theatre company starting on Monday April 20 is setting up an eleven week programme of works by disable artists and actors. It will be divided into three strands. Play will open on 20 April with Flesh, a monologue by Anita Kelly. There will be ten monologues by among others Khush Chaha, Adam Fenton, Kathryn Golding, Hannah Treadaway and many others and they will be read to camera by a deaf or disabled actor and introduced by Jack Thorne, the playwright whose work includes Harry Potter and The Cursed Child. On Wednesday 22 April there will be Podcast, the first in a series of interviews. It will open with TourettesHero Jess Thorn’s interview with Nickie Miles-Wildin. Picture, which will be seen on Friday, is a series of images released from the Graeae archives celebrating the careers of Deaf and disabled performers, the first one being Gary Robson by Jakob Hirsch.
Jack Thorne said he had watched disabled people being ignored by his industry for a very long time, and now, at a time of national crisis, they were being ignored in a much more dangerous way. Listening to them, hearing their stories felt more important than ever. Graeae were, in his opinion the national theatre of disabled people and he was proud to be working with them as part of this scheme.
“These are an amazing group of disabled writers and actors and it makes me very proud to be working with them as part of this scheme,” he added. “There’s all sorts of stories here – catering for all tastes – and including everything from an account of someone wanking to someone caring for their dying partner. I can’t wait for people to consume what they’ve made.”
Nickie Miles-Wildin, Graeae's Associate Artistic Director said that at a time when Dead and disabled people were isolating, shielding and being medicalised heir voices were even more important and she was proud of how quickly their writer shad responded with such a range of ideas and how the actors had performed with little rehearsal. "It is an absolute joy for Graeae's New Writing team to work with Jack Thorne on the shape of this quick response programme.
The strands can be found on Graeae's website - www.graeae.org and on Facebook - Igraeae