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| Version 2 | Version 3 |
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| Kaite O’Reilly: ‘I write disabled characters who aren’t evil, piteous or helpless’ | Kaite O’Reilly: ‘I write disabled characters who aren’t evil, piteous or helpless’ |
| (about 2 months later) | |
| “What is normal?” playwright Kaite O’Reilly asks during a break in rehearsals for her new play, And Suddenly I Disappear. “What is normal for you, isn’t normal for me. We’re so limited by these ideas of normalcy, what it is to be human.” | “What is normal?” playwright Kaite O’Reilly asks during a break in rehearsals for her new play, And Suddenly I Disappear. “What is normal for you, isn’t normal for me. We’re so limited by these ideas of normalcy, what it is to be human.” |
| O’Reilly’s play, debuting at the Southbank Centre in London , on Wednesday, then touring around the country, comprises what O’Reilly calls her “D-monologues”: fictional soliloquies discussing aspects of disability, difference and diversity. Two of the actors, Ramesh Meyyappan and Sophie Stone, are deaf. “There are so few good parts for people who are different, whose bodies don’t conform,” O’Reilly says. “And, invariably, they’re not performed by disabled or deaf people” – a fact highlighted by the row over the casting of a non-disabled actor in the remake of The Elephant Man. | O’Reilly’s play, debuting at the Southbank Centre in London , on Wednesday, then touring around the country, comprises what O’Reilly calls her “D-monologues”: fictional soliloquies discussing aspects of disability, difference and diversity. Two of the actors, Ramesh Meyyappan and Sophie Stone, are deaf. “There are so few good parts for people who are different, whose bodies don’t conform,” O’Reilly says. “And, invariably, they’re not performed by disabled or deaf people” – a fact highlighted by the row over the casting of a non-disabled actor in the remake of The Elephant Man. |
| Theatre must get over disability and help us 'put crips in our scripts' | Kaite O'Reilly | Theatre must get over disability and help us 'put crips in our scripts' | Kaite O'Reilly |
| Instead of combusting, O’Reillyembarked on theD-monologues, which is made up of lots of conversations with disabled people. “I don’t take people’s stories, it feels too much like theft,” O’Reilly explains. “Instead I took people’s hopes, fears, thoughts, lived experiences, and used them to inform a fictional monologue. There are lots of different opinions: some people say ‘I’m not disabled, I don’t want to be called disabled’ because they may have a very different perspective from someone like me. | Instead of combusting, O’Reillyembarked on theD-monologues, which is made up of lots of conversations with disabled people. “I don’t take people’s stories, it feels too much like theft,” O’Reilly explains. “Instead I took people’s hopes, fears, thoughts, lived experiences, and used them to inform a fictional monologue. There are lots of different opinions: some people say ‘I’m not disabled, I don’t want to be called disabled’ because they may have a very different perspective from someone like me. |
| “I decided I wanted to write work that challenges the normal perception of what it is to be disabled,” says O’Reilly. “I’m perceiving the world differently because of the particular body and senses I have. I’m grateful that I can really explore disability, and the political and cultural perspective that brings.” | “I decided I wanted to write work that challenges the normal perception of what it is to be disabled,” says O’Reilly. “I’m perceiving the world differently because of the particular body and senses I have. I’m grateful that I can really explore disability, and the political and cultural perspective that brings.” |
| O’Reillydescribes herself as a person with a visual and physical disability, writing for disabled actors. It means she has avoided the tendency to use characters’ disabilities exclusively as plot devices, or disability being a metaphor for moral bankruptcy. “Disabled characters are often metaphors or tropes, representing very negative aspects of what it is to be human. So you’re evil personified, or you’re piteous or you’re helpless, or, since the 2012 Olympics, it’s gone the other way, we’re inspirational – ‘The extraordinary bodies, look what they can overcome!’” | O’Reillydescribes herself as a person with a visual and physical disability, writing for disabled actors. It means she has avoided the tendency to use characters’ disabilities exclusively as plot devices, or disability being a metaphor for moral bankruptcy. “Disabled characters are often metaphors or tropes, representing very negative aspects of what it is to be human. So you’re evil personified, or you’re piteous or you’re helpless, or, since the 2012 Olympics, it’s gone the other way, we’re inspirational – ‘The extraordinary bodies, look what they can overcome!’” |
| Why are disabled actors ignored when it comes to roles like the Elephant Man? | Frances Ryan | Why are disabled actors ignored when it comes to roles like the Elephant Man? | Frances Ryan |
| For O’Reilly, it is important to show that it isn’t the disability or the disabled body itself that makes life as a disabled person harder. “If you work as I do, from the political perspective, it’s the social model of disability, you don’t see the idiosyncracies of the body that disable us what disables us are the barriers, both attitudinal and physical, in society, so it’s a social construct. I don’t want to engage with stories about overcoming your challenges to be an inspiration for the non-disabled. And I also get very frustrated about these all of these cliches have persisted for centuries, like if you’re blind you’ll have a second sight.” | For O’Reilly, it is important to show that it isn’t the disability or the disabled body itself that makes life as a disabled person harder. “If you work as I do, from the political perspective, it’s the social model of disability, you don’t see the idiosyncracies of the body that disable us what disables us are the barriers, both attitudinal and physical, in society, so it’s a social construct. I don’t want to engage with stories about overcoming your challenges to be an inspiration for the non-disabled. And I also get very frustrated about these all of these cliches have persisted for centuries, like if you’re blind you’ll have a second sight.” |
| The play was first performed in Singapore earlier this year, when O’Reilly won funding from Unlimited, which supports art projects by disabled artists. This was the fourth commission from the programme; the first saw her play, In Water I’m Weightless, performed at the Southbank Centre in 2012. The new incarnation of And Suddenly I Disappear is a number of monologues, predominantly in English (but also Mandarin, Cantonese and Singapore sign language), written, spoken, captioned and projected. “What was frustrating [with the first version] was the audience would automatically assume it was real life, and gush “Oh wow, you’re so brave!”, as did some of the critics, I’m afraid to say. These are professional actors, the stories are fictional but realistic, but it’s so rare, people cannot grasp it. One of our actors at the time said “Do I have to kill someone if I want to play Macbeth?” | The play was first performed in Singapore earlier this year, when O’Reilly won funding from Unlimited, which supports art projects by disabled artists. This was the fourth commission from the programme; the first saw her play, In Water I’m Weightless, performed at the Southbank Centre in 2012. The new incarnation of And Suddenly I Disappear is a number of monologues, predominantly in English (but also Mandarin, Cantonese and Singapore sign language), written, spoken, captioned and projected. “What was frustrating [with the first version] was the audience would automatically assume it was real life, and gush “Oh wow, you’re so brave!”, as did some of the critics, I’m afraid to say. These are professional actors, the stories are fictional but realistic, but it’s so rare, people cannot grasp it. One of our actors at the time said “Do I have to kill someone if I want to play Macbeth?” |
| These benevolent but misguided attitudesspur O’Reilly on to continue her work: few people were writing about disability well, or creating the opportunities for disabled actors, so she says she had no option but to create the plays and roles herself. Her next project is a remake of Richard III written as a one-woman show. The actor, Sara Beer (who is also in O’Reilly’s current play) has the same form of scoliosis as the famously reviled king. “It’s not just a straight retelling: we look at how Shakespeare’s Richard III was essentially just Tudor propaganda, how it’s been played through the ages and just how many people have ‘cripped-up’,” says O’Reilly. “It’s very exciting!” | These benevolent but misguided attitudesspur O’Reilly on to continue her work: few people were writing about disability well, or creating the opportunities for disabled actors, so she says she had no option but to create the plays and roles herself. Her next project is a remake of Richard III written as a one-woman show. The actor, Sara Beer (who is also in O’Reilly’s current play) has the same form of scoliosis as the famously reviled king. “It’s not just a straight retelling: we look at how Shakespeare’s Richard III was essentially just Tudor propaganda, how it’s been played through the ages and just how many people have ‘cripped-up’,” says O’Reilly. “It’s very exciting!” |
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| Curriculum vitae | Curriculum vitae |
| Lives Wales. | Lives Wales. |
| Education University of Sheffield (BA hons theatre and English literature). | Education University of Sheffield (BA hons theatre and English literature). |
| Career 1987 to present: actor, writer and playwright including Graeae theatre, Birmingham rep theatre, Soho theatre, the Bush theatre, Crucible studio, National Theatre studio, National Theatre Wales, and Manchester’s Royal Exchange. | Career 1987 to present: actor, writer and playwright including Graeae theatre, Birmingham rep theatre, Soho theatre, the Bush theatre, Crucible studio, National Theatre studio, National Theatre Wales, and Manchester’s Royal Exchange. |
| Public life Patron, Disability Arts Cymru and DaDaFest; 2010-18: fellow in Interweaving Performance Cultures, Freie Universität, Berlin; 2003-06 Arts and Humanities Research Council creative fellow at the University of Exeter. | Public life Patron, Disability Arts Cymru and DaDaFest; 2010-18: fellow in Interweaving Performance Cultures, Freie Universität, Berlin; 2003-06 Arts and Humanities Research Council creative fellow at the University of Exeter. |
| Awards Elliott Hayes award for outstanding achievement in dramaturgy for And Suddenly I Disappear; Manchester theatre awards best play for Perfect in 2004 (Contact theatre), Theatre Wales best play for peeling in 2003 (Graeae theatre company). | Awards Elliott Hayes award for outstanding achievement in dramaturgy for And Suddenly I Disappear; Manchester theatre awards best play for Perfect in 2004 (Contact theatre), Theatre Wales best play for peeling in 2003 (Graeae theatre company). |
| Interests Walking, reading, travel, theatre. | Interests Walking, reading, travel, theatre. |
| • And Suddenly I Disappear is at the Purcell Room, Southbank Centre, London SE1, 5-6 September at 7.45pm | • And Suddenly I Disappear is at the Purcell Room, Southbank Centre, London SE1, 5-6 September at 7.45pm |
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