If These Spasms Could Speak

ROBERT SOFTLEY (UK)

21/03/14 – BRIGHTON DOME, BRIGHTON
BSL INTERPRETED

If These Spasms Could Speak is a collection of funny, sad, touching and surprising narratives, gathered through interviews with disabled people: an engaging, highly humorous and interactive live art performance about disabled people that exposes a truth behind bodies that differ from the norm.

‘As disabled people, our bodies are central to how we exist in the world. They are the way others first judge us, the subject of medical diagnosis, and usually seen as the reason that we can’t take part in society. And yet, they also carry with them volumes of stories about incidents, scrapes and calamities. Let us tell you how we perceive ourselves.’

The performance is a new solo theatre work by disabled artist Robert Softley, (co creator of National Theatre of Scotland’s Girl X) and was described at the Edinburgh Fringe 2013 as: ‘Thrilling … compelling … radical … complex’ The Guardian

The performance was followed by a post- show talk and discussion reflecting on issues of body, identity and disability explored in If These Spasms Could Speak, with Robert Softley and Caroline Bowditch.

ARTIST WEBSITE
Robert Softley