Accessible Theatre Is Better Theatre: Look Up at Peer Productions

Emily Tomlinson (Chloe) and Charlie Valentine (Jack).

At Peer Productions, we think accessibility shouldn’t be something we add at the end of a project. It is something we build in from the very beginning.

Our upcoming production of Look Up by Andrew Muir is a strong example of what happens when inclusive practice and high creative standards go hand in hand. The show is a joint project performed and crewed by young artists from our PAD and PEP programmes, bringing together performers with and without learning disabilities to make ambitious, visually exciting theatre.

Look Up tells the story of a group of young people who reject the adult world and form a secret society of their own. Through ritual, music, movement and debate they create new rules in a search for truth, freedom and belonging. When an outsider arrives and challenges their beliefs, the group must confront leadership, loyalty and what it really means to grow up, and to look up.

From the start, this project set out to be ambitious. Not ambitious “for an inclusive project”, but ambitious by any artistic standard.

Look Up company with Andrew Muir

Our learning assistant Chase Hembrow has drawn on their puppet making and directing skills to create two striking puppets for the production and the cast have taken part in puppetry workshops . They undertook a 5 Rhythms Masterclass to help them explore movement and dance more freely and confidently on stage. We also invited Wandering Knight Stage Combat Company to run a workshop and choreograph a fight sequence with the cast. This week they met the writer Andrew Muir and had the opportunity to quiz him about their characters. All of this feeds into the ambition of the piece and raises the creative bar for everyone involved.

Accessibility has shaped the technical design as well. Around the performance space we have installed multiple screens that display the actors’ lines. Wherever the performers look, they can see the text and so can the audience.

Experimenting with screens

This approach has been designed in response to the particular strengths of the actors involved. Many of the PEP performers in this show are excellent readers and brilliant actors, but memorising large amounts of text can be difficult. Instead of forcing them into a traditional rehearsal model designed for neurotypical actors, we have built a system that allows them to focus on performance.

The result is a cast who can commit fully to character, movement and storytelling without the constant pressure of memorisation.

This system is not simple to run. The screens, sound and video cues add up to 960 cues across a production that lasts just 68 minutes! Even the cabling alone has been a serious logistical task for the team. Our student technicians, who are both PEP learners with Down syndrome, are central to making it happen. As well as operating these complex cues, they are also using remote controlled lights and performing as ensemble in the play.

It is important to say that this is not a universal accessibility solution. We work with many actors for whom completely different techniques would be far more appropriate. Inclusive theatre means responding to the needs and strengths of the people in the room each time you create something. It also means recognising that no piece of theatre can work for everyone. This production will not suit every audience member either. In truth, it is virtually impossible to make something that works for everyone at once. What we can do is make thoughtful creative choices and aim for the highest artistic standards.

What audiences will see in Look Up is a cast and crew of 13 talented young artists with and without learning disabilities holding their own on stage as they tell Andrew Muir’s powerful story. Nobody is speaking their lines for them. There is no whispered prompting from the wings. PAD actors aren’t helping PEP performers. Everyone is helping each other. A company of equal performers fully owning the stage.

This is not good theatre for disabled people. It is simply good theatre.

And we cannot wait to share it with you.

Look Up by Andrew Muir
Peer Place
19 and 20 March
7pm

Tickets £5 from the Peer Productions Box Office.