artists statement

Lodged somewhere between theatre, comedy, and therapy, lies ‘The Crippled Puppeteer’, a personal exploration of my life as a disabled person. I wanted to engage with the historical context surrounding the Disability Art Movement and the environments that were created to foster the community – more specifically, the cabaret scene. Collectives such as The Tragic But Brave Show, helped to create a welcoming space that was accessible to disabled people and allowed for them to mix with other disabled people and become more empowered through the process. The acts were often humorous, which became an outlet for voicing the injustices that disabled people faced. All of this history and culture was the backbone of my work, from inspiring my defiant approach to ableism within my life and within myself, to the presentation and performance element of the piece itself.

Two key elements to draw attention to, would be my costume and Lola – the sock puppet. My costume was an assemblage of medical items that I collected over years, but it mainly consisted of doctor’s letters that were stitched together and collaged into a dress. The dress was a reclamation of my disabled narrative, taking a large amount of text that was about me, but did not represent me, and then redefining it within my own terms. Lola came to be through a similar process of recycling medical material and began her existence as a hospital sock that signifies ‘high fall risk’ that I received after surgery. Lola has since become the mean ‘funny man’ to my ‘straight man’, as well as voicing my inner ableism in a way in which I can confront. She represents not only my darker thoughts, but also the attitudes of people I have encountered over years of being visibly disabled. Using a puppet to convey unspoken thoughts is typical of the ventriloquist medium, and I wanted to utilise this within my performance. This transfers through to the comedic experience, as the puppet becomes a conduit for these otherwise unspeakable notions.

Ventriloquism is situated between both stand-up comedy and theatre, embodying key characteristics of both, but for my work I wanted to elevate the theatrics and lean into the ‘role’ I play when I am perceived as disabled by other people. I intended on organising a live event, performing to an audience evoking a cabaret show, stand-up gig, or stage play, but due to restrictions I transferred the concept into a digital interpretation. This then allowed for a more thorough exploration of scenography and pushing the boundaries of the concept, allowing me to translate the atmosphere of the stage to my living room. In a famous quote from Peter Brook, he claimed any empty space could be called a stage, and the act of theatre is enacted through something as simple as a person walking across the space whilst another watches. Working from this as a baseline, I was able to craft theatre from my living room and broadcast it as a livestream, with the digital element furthering the creative process. It enabled me to engage with three levels of audiences – primary, secondary, and tertiary – and explore ‘digital’ scenography, through designing a website featuring online stage sets embedded with recorded performances. My primary audience, in lieu of a live one, was a laugh track, which created the opportunity to control the reactions to suit the material, in turn affecting the secondary audience – the viewers of the livestream. The final level, tertiary audience, is the unknown digital public who experience the work through the website. Through this final group, the performance continues indefinitely for as long as the website is interacted with.