Eternity Playhouse

Benched is a show created by and starring Jamila Main, an actor, award-winning playwright, and disability and inclusion consultant. Jamila is a queer, disabled and chronically ill person and ambulatory wheelchair user. They are also one heck of an innovative theatre maker.  In Benched, Jamila invites six guests to enter the space and choose from a ball, a shoe or a frisbee. A story is then told that contemplates athleticism and the assumed binary of disability – audiences will watch the story mutate before their eyes. The work invites spectators to reconsider their assumptions of sick and disabled people.  Just as there is no one definition of ‘disability’, Benched can be experienced in several different ways. You can sit in the audience in the accustomed way and watch what happens ($32-$38). You can join Jamila on the bench and be part of the show for ten minutes before taking your seat in the stalls ($42). You can experience those ten minutes as a private experience (with no audience) for $42. You can watch a live stream of a performance ($10). Or you can purchase a recording of a ten-minute segment ($10). Whatever way you choose to see it, you’d better be quick because Benched will have six performances only, May 25-29, at the Eternity Playhouse as part of Darlinghurst Theatre Company’s current season.