Don’t Dismiss My Abilities has long been one of the main slogans of the disability movement. Constantly we are amazed by the ability of those with disabilities. Why even the tv coverage of the Australian Open at the moment has wheelchair bound athlete and celebrity Dylan Allcott as one of its main commentators.
Tonight at Wollongong’s main theatre venue the Illawarra Performing Arts Centre, IPAC for short, the show TRASH TALKS by the Strangeways Ensemble opens. The Strangeways Ensembke is a Wollongong based professional theatre group, principally via funding from Create NSW and the support of the Merrigong Theatre Company, the resident company at IPAC, that presents the work of people with an intellectual disability.
I spoke to the Artistic Director and Director of the Ensemble Anne-Louise Rentell about the show. “The Ensemble has been going since 2014. Every three years we come up with a show which is put on at IPAC There was ‘The Man Who Dreamt The Stars’ and then in 2017 ‘The Outside Man’
I asked Anne-Louise how do the productions come to fruition.
“We, myself and the seven members of the Ensemble, meet up every week. We brainstorm an idea and then once we are happy with the idea we work on it together. I play the role of shaping and crafting the work. In .the months before a show opens we meet a lot to rehearse the show and get it ready for performance.”
TRASH TALK takes place in a Australian Disability Enterprise (ADE) workplace. ADE is Australia’s biggest employer of people with disabilities. In the workplace.
The play is an eclectic mix of video projection, naturalistic and stylised physical theatre and is based on professional wrestling and set against the back-drop of bullying and discrimination in the workplace as experienced by the company’s cast members and more broadly representing the greater Australian disabled community.
I asked Anne-Louise how did the performers cope with the .rigours of theatre making,, having to remember lines and blocking and the like. Anne-Louise said “They work hard and get it done. It’s not easy even for people without disabilities. We spend a lot of time on our work.”
it all sounds like a show well worth supporting. TRASH TALK plays the Illawarra Performing Arts Centre Thursday 30 January at 6.30pm, Friday 31 January at 7.30pm, Saturday 1 February1.30pm and 7.30pm and Sunday 2nd February, 2020 at 5pm,
TRASH TALK will then go on a mini tour, playing at the Riverside Theatres, Parramatta between the 14th and the 15th February, playing Friday 14th February at 7pm and Saturday 15th February at 1pm.
Featured image : A pic from the show TRASH TALK,