– VAULT Festival 2022 has now been cancelled – How Disabled Are You? is an award-winning, raw and fragile play, making its London debut at VAULT Festival over three dates in March and is the latest work from award-winning disabled, queer, working class writer, Tommy / The Queer Historian.
When told by a Job Centre employee that “gay men don’t need disability benefits anymore as they are no longer dying from AIDS”, Tommy became fascinated with how people’s opinions are formed on disability and people that claim benefits.
Tommy lives with a hidden disability and the award-winning show is told through Tommy’s personal story of losing his disability benefits. Each performance see’s two new disabled participants; some who claim benefits and all without a performance background, take to the stage and read a script for the first time in front of a live audience.
Every performance see’s new participants, changing the pace and tone of the piece. The script has been created from interviews Tommy collated over a six month period from people who believe that the benefits system is corrupt or being mistreated.
This play marks its debut in London after it’s debut at Brighton Fringe 2019 where the play won ONCA’s The Green Curtain Award, an award given to Fringe projects that best manifests ONCA’s mission of supporting artists and audiences who engage with environmental and social challenges.
How Disabled Are You? is at VAULT Festival’s Forge 1st, 2nd and 3rd March 2022.
