I’m very excited to tell you that I’ll be bringing my solo show to the Barbican on the 11th and 12th October 2019, and curating a showcase of disabled artists to accompany it – see the CRIPtic website (link)
I have been developing my solo show over a number of years, and in October 2018 took it to the Barbican to work on it through the OpenLab scheme. This was very successful, and by the end I had a show (almost – there’s still some work to do on it).
Having taken part in Transpose (link), a showcase of trans artists that has been happening annually at the Barbican, I saw that there was room in the world for a showcase of disabled artists – everything from singers and dancers to poets, actors, magicians, and anything else that can be done on stage!
I pitched the idea to the Barbican, and we decided to create a double bill – my solo show NOT DYING, and a showcase of disabled artists to accompany it.
NOT DYING is my solo poetry show about my process of coming to terms with the presence of death in my life – and how I focus on living with, despite, and through that. It plumbs the depths of misery that can accompany life-threatening illness, before changing focus to ask “how can I, as a disabled person, exist in the world?”.
To answer that question, it covers everything from comedy to tragedy, my sex life to incontinence pads, Inspirational Content to anger. It refuses to accept my life is a tragedy, whilst also acknowledging the grief of progressive impairment, and it ends on a note of joy, defiance, and resilience.
The rest of the CRIPtic showcase will be 4-6 other artists with 15 minute sets, themed around the anger, resilience, and joy of living in the world as D/deaf & disabled.
There is an open application/pitching process to perform at CRIPtic, or work there as a non-performing creative (link).
Tickets for CRIPtic go on sale in Spring. To be the first to hear, why not follow us on Twitter (link) and Facebook (link).
You can also follow Jamie Hale’s progress with NOT DYING on their Twitter (link) and Facebook (link).
Sign up for email updates on the Barbican ticketing here (link). You can also join their Access Membership scheme for disabled people (link), and their Young Barbican Membership scheme for 14-25s (link).