Leading disabled-led company Vital Xposure is marking World Theatre Day by highlighting the groundbreaking research transforming how disability, access and creative leadership influence UK theatre-making.
The London-based company has spent more than a decade championing hidden stories and marginalised voices through radical performance, and its recent research programme VX Labs is reshaping approaches to accessibility, authorship and artistic development.
2025 saw the company present the world premiere tour of …blackbird hour in association with the Bush Theatre, appoint playwright and dramaturg Josh Elliott as Artistic Director, and expand the ambitious VX Labs research initiative.
Supported by Arts Council England and delivered with partners including the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and regional theatres, VX Labs is a three-year programme exploring disabled-led performance through experimental, artist‑led research labs.
Four labs completed so far have already begun influencing the company’s artistic direction and wider sector practice, with findings published for artists and organisations to access at vitalxposure.co.uk.
One lab explored creative captioning across multilingual plays in Hindi, Punjabi and Urdu, demonstrating how captions can enrich storytelling when embedded into the creative process from the outset.
Another, developed with Z‑arts in Manchester, brought together disabled artists and young people to explore accessible theatre for children. Findings highlighted how involving young participants leads to more imaginative and ambitious accessible work. A practical commissioning toolkit is now being created by Nickie Miles‑Wildin of TwoCan Inclusive Theatre Company and Sarah Emmott of Art with Heart.
A third residency, delivered with Bristol Old Vic, examined Decolonising Disability, highlighting the “double exclusion” experienced by Global Majority disabled artists and resulting in the formation of a new collective, Aggressively Civil.
The newest research, led with Sheffield Theatres, asked what a playscript conceived entirely in British Sign Language would look like, inviting artists to experiment with visual authorship through signing, choreography and film. Findings will be shared later this year, with the ambition to commission the company’s first production originated fully in BSL.
Vital Xposure is already applying these learnings through the development of R&D projects When I See Blue and Chouette.
Artistic Director Josh Elliott said: “World Theatre Day feels like a good moment to say that this work has to be more than rhetoric. If we’re serious about broadening who theatre is for, and who gets to shape it, then that learning has to be embedded in the work we make. At Vital Xposure, we’re trying to put our money where our mouth is by taking what’s come out of our Labs and applying it directly to the work we’re developing now, including When I See Blue and Chouette. What’s become clear to us is that access and disabled leadership don’t limit the artform – they open up richer possibilities for what theatre can be.”
When I See Blue, based on Lily Bailey’s acclaimed novel, is adapted by Elliott with dramaturgy by Lu Kemp. The team recently explored the world and theatrical language of this story about a neurodivergent boy navigating OCD and friendship.
Chouette, written by Madeleine Farnhill and supported through R&D with Sheffield Theatres and Bristol Old Vic, is a feminist fable exploring motherhood, disability and the pressure to “fix” non‑conforming children.
Through research, artist development and new writing, Vital Xposure presents a vision of theatre where access, diversity and artistic excellence are deeply connected, with disabled-led practice driving forward new creative forms.
Listings and ticket information can be found here.
