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Born with osteoporosis, Glaswegian Claire Cunningham has been walking with crutches since she was 14. Now she uses them to dance, creating striking and precariously beautiful shows that are changing the silhouette of dance theatre. Incorporating live music and taped interviews, her latest venture tackles the subject of disability and religion. How, she wondered, would Islam, Hinduism, Christianity and Buddhism explain her birth condition?
Southbank Centre, Sep 2-3
Jess Thom is one of the UK’s best-known people with Tourette’s syndrome. She is also one of the funniest, with a flair for surreal word-association that would make Ross Noble feel imaginatively stymied, and a talent for heckling herself. Three years ago, Thom was asked to leave the audience during a comedy show because of her intense verbal and physical tics. So she decided to do her own show instead. The result is this mix of spontaneous stand-up and moving storytelling.
Southbank Centre, Sun Sep 7
The expression ‘getting your leg over’ takes on a different focus in this dating-app sex comedy. But the humour doesn’t stop with frank and filthy dialogue. ‘Wendy Hoose’ also takes a playful approach to ‘assisted performance’. Watch out for surtitles full of cheeky emoticons and a prudish audio describer resorting to the phrase ‘he manually manhandles her ladygarden’.
Southbank Centre, Sep 6-7
An unpublished story by cult picturebook eccentric Edward Gorey. A musical score by Martyn Jacques of The Tiger Lillies, best known for their Olivier-winning show ‘Shockheaded Peter’. And a talking pig. What more could you want? Set in an ailing travelling circus, this family show for deaf and hearing children mixes puppetry, music, acrobatics and deaf storytelling techniques with a joyful disregard for convention.
Southbank Centre, Sep 6
Katherine Araniello is a performance artist who likes to savage disability clichés. So when she hosts a dinner for six nightmarish guests, expect dark comedy and chaotic revelations. Each guest is played by a recorded Araniello. But her interaction with them is raw improvisation, and her butler will be getting sozzled on real alcohol. Araniello uses a wheelchair, which makes touring difficult. Here she’ll road test a groundbreaking solution, using cutting-edge technology to appear simultaneously here and at another London venue.
Southbank Centre, Tue Sep 2
Southbank Centre's festival of disability arts, Unlimited, returns with dance on crutches, a stand-up with Tourette's and a sex-comedy in sign-language
Born with osteoporosis, Glaswegian Claire Cunningham has been walking with crutches since she was 14. Now she uses them to dance, creating striking and precariously beautiful shows that are changing the silhouette of dance theatre. Incorporating live music and taped interviews, her latest venture tackles the subject of disability and religion. How, she wondered, would Islam, Hinduism, Christianity and Buddhism explain her birth condition?
Jess Thom is one of the UK’s best-known people with Tourette’s syndrome. She is also one of the funniest, with a flair for surreal word-association that would make Ross Noble feel imaginatively stymied, and a talent for heckling herself. Three years ago, Thom was asked to leave the audience during a comedy show because of her intense verbal and physical tics. So she decided to do her own show instead. The result is this mix of spontaneous stand-up and moving storytelling.
The expression ‘getting your leg over’ takes on a different focus in this dating-app sex comedy. But the humour doesn’t stop with frank and filthy dialogue. ‘Wendy Hoose’ also takes a playful approach to ‘assisted performance’. Watch out for surtitles full of cheeky emoticons and a prudish audio describer resorting to the phrase ‘he manually manhandles her ladygarden’.
An unpublished story by cult picturebook eccentric Edward Gorey. A musical score by Martyn Jacques of The Tiger Lillies, best known for their Olivier-winning show ‘Shockheaded Peter’. And a talking pig. What more could you want? Set in an ailing travelling circus, this family show for deaf and hearing children mixes puppetry, music, acrobatics and deaf storytelling techniques with a joyful disregard for convention.
Katherine Araniello is a performance artist who likes to savage disability clichés. So when she hosts a dinner for six nightmarish guests, expect dark comedy and chaotic revelations. Each guest is played by a recorded Araniello. But her interaction with them is raw improvisation, and her butler will be getting sozzled on real alcohol. Araniello uses a wheelchair, which makes touring difficult. Here she’ll road test a groundbreaking solution, using cutting-edge technology to appear simultaneously here and at another London venue.
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