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A Blind Spot in Our Theatre Culture?Dateline: 29th October, 2006An award-winning South African play, Full Circle by Kobus Moolman, opens at Oval House Theatre in London on Tuesday. The main character in the play, Meisie, is a blind girl who has prophetic visions, which her right wing extremist family interpret as signs from God about how they should carry out their terrorist plots against the newly elected ANC government led by Nelson Mandela. The part is played by Sarah Caltieri, a visually impaired actress. This seems an obvious choice. As director Rachel Briscoe put it, "It's simply the same principle as you would apply to casting any other role: to cast the actor who is best for the part. With a sighted actress we would have had to dedicate so much rehearsal time to playing blindness. With Sarah, that's there already, so we can immediately concentrate on the things that really matter - the character, the situation, the drama of the play." But it remains unusual for disabled artists to collaborate with non-disabled artists in the main stream. As Sarah said, "I was so chuffed when I realised a non-disabled company wanted to work with a disabled actor." Things are changing, of course. The National Theatre has featured wheelchair using actors working within a non-disabled company, the dance company DV8 have courageously explored the possibilities of working with a disabled dancer and Oxfordshire touring company recently produced a version of Under Milk Wood featuring a British Sign Language speaker, who translated Dylan Thomas's poetry into his own language. And major theatres are starting to follow the work of disabled artists, like the Soho Theatre, who have invited Graeae, Britain's foremost disabled-led company, to bring their production of Sarah Kane's Blasted there in January. Things are improving for audiences too, thanks mainly to the Disability Discrimination Act which has encouraged many theatres to build lifts for those who are mobility impaired, and to begin having audio-described performances (for the visually impaired) and sign-language interpreted or captioned performances (for the hearing impaired). But provision remains very low. Even some very large theatres only have one audio described or sign-interpreted performance per month, so if someone with a sensory impairment has other plans for that night, they can't see the show. These performances are also often on "quiet' performances such as Tuesday evenings or often weekday matinees - bad news for a disabled person who has a job. Blue Hug Theatre, the company behind Full Circle have responded by having an audio-described performance for every week of the run, and scheduling the performances on nights when people want to go out - Thursday and Friday nights. So, what does the future hold in store? Sarah told me that things were improving, but very slowly. "The future of disability arts is to erase the word 'disability'" she declared. Blue Hug Theatre Company endorse this view. "This is not a play about disability," argues Rachel Briscoe. "It is a play about families and change and fear. Meisie's blindness is an aspect of her character but is not her sole feature. We didn't choose to do this play as a political statement; we chose it because it is a brilliant play - and we chose Sarah because she is a great actress. Our aim has always been to do justice to this exciting script, and so far things are looking good!" Full Circle runs at Oval House Theatre from the 31st October to the 18th of November as part of the Southern African Season. Dan Barnard
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