ACMB01 – (PRELIMINARY) Research Essay – Spring 2020
Theatre, Atrocity, and Memory: Jackie Sibblies Drury’s “We Are Proud to Present a Presentation about the Herero of Namibia, Formerly Known as Southwest Africa, from the German Sudwestafrika, between the Years 1884-1915”
“You guys just did some amazing work.
Really great.
But we can’t keep stopping like this.
We need to stay in it and move
Or we’re never going to figure out this whole genocide thing.” (Drury 82)
But First…. A Note from the ACMB01 Curricular Coordinator, Dr. Sarah Lynn Kleeb: Dear Students, We are currently living in an exceptional time, where many changes are taking place – some quickly, some less so – both within the course and within the university. The original draft of this assignment guide has been prepared for some time, to be circulated in class the week classes were moved online. However, the past few weeks have required some reconsideration of how to conclude the course. All ACMB01 instructors have met to decide on some modifications to trajectory and details of this assignment (e.g., length requirements). These have been incorporated into this document. However, please do note that some things (e.g., due dates) may yet be subject to change. It is still unclear whether the university will extend its time for submission of term work. As of today (March 22), the due date for this assignment remains unchanged: April 3, 2020, 11:59pm. If this changes, you will be notified by the university, and your instructor will reach out with any needed specifics. As well, I am in continuous contact with our departmental administration, looking into the possibility of sharing some recorded segments of the play’s performance, for those who were unable to attend. Just which and how many clips to be made available is yet to be determined, but you will be updated as soon as there is information to pass on, and any videos will be made available to you on Quercus. If you were unable to retrieve a copy of the text from the campus bookstores or campus library system, do note that Amazon.ca has a Kindle version (electronic, delivered to your device immediately), for just over $10. I truly hope that you are all well, and that you are faring as well as can be hoped under this added stress. I know every ACMB01 instructor is looking forward to seeing our students reflect on this phenomenal play and their independent research. Please know that we all value your thoughts and reflections immensely and are immeasurably proud of the work you’ve done – and continue doing – this term. Please do not hesitate to reach out to your instructor for support. Your instructor should be in regular contact with you, but if you think there is something specific I can do to support you, you are welcome to contact me at sarah.kleeb@mail.utoronto.ca . With my warmest regards, Dr. Kleeb |
Prompt
Jackie Sibblies Drury’s play, “We Are Proud to Present a Presentation about the Herero of Namibia, Formerly Known as Southwest Africa, from the German Sudwestafrika, between the Years 1884-1915”, covers a lot of difficult, turbulent ground. At once a work of metatheatre and a postdramatic lesson on the complexities of unfolding genocides – complexities felt by both victims and perpetrators of such genocides – Drury’s play encourages the audience to reflect on issues of genocide, memory, and human complicity in atrocities, while also disclosing a little-known history. By reading and viewing Drury’s play, and by researching themes related to the play, you are able to make unique connections for your reader, showing them how scholars have thought about the issues raised in this play, and how the play itself communicates such information in an artistic format.
Instructions:
For your final two major writing assignments for the course, you have composed an annotated bibliography, and will now write a research essay (due April 3, 2020). These two assignments are connected: the resources you explored in your annotated bibliography will likely become the sources you use to support your thesis and claims in the research essay. Building on the research you have done in your annotated bibliography, bring your sources into conversation with one another, to present your reader with a researched essay that enables them to see the connections between your research and the play itself.
Like an argument essay, a research project provides a thesis and supports that thesis through research, observation, and analysis/claims. A research essay in this context will bring together multiple sources that address a common theme (or set of themes) relevant to the play and the thesis you want to support, based in the research you have done for your annotated bibliography. The thesis will draw on this research, demonstrating how it has shaped your understanding of “We Are Proud to Present…” and the kinds of issues it raises. What do you want readers to understand about this play, this history, these patterns, and what scholars have had to say about these? What kind of thesis – about the play, and/or about the issues raised in the play – can you build, based on the scholarship you have reviewed for your annotated bibliography?
Content Notes
Due to the recent and unforeseeable circumstances with COVID-19, students unable to see the theatrical performance of the play may refer exclusively to the textual version of the play. As noted above, we are also trying to secure some recorded segments of the performance (though a full recording is not going to be possible). Updates on this will be made as soon as they are available to you.
As well, you have some decisions on how you approach this assignment. Usually, in ACMB01, this final theatrical performance is the core object of engagement in the research essay. This may not be possible in the same ways this term. You can certainly make the play (performance and/or script) the centerpiece of the essay, to which you apply insights collected from your scholarly research in the annotated bibliography. If you would prefer to focus on developing the issues you discovered in the annotated bibliography more deeply, the play can act more as one point of reference among others. The play remains a required resource, but you may use it as an object to which you apply analysis, or you may use it as an example of a media text that represents issues found in your research.
Assignment Details
Length: 1300-1750 words, including a separate
Works Cited
page. Do not include a title page.
Sources: Your research essay should bring together no fewer than 7 academic sources, in addition to the play itself (text, performance, or both), for a total of 8 minimum sources (9 sources, if you use both the text and performance of the play). Many or all of these sources should carry over from your annotated bibliography. Note that there are fewer sources “required” for the essay. As you get into the process of writing, you may find that a few resources are not as useful as you initially thought they would be, as you refine your thesis and argumentation. This is simply part of the process of writing – sometimes, you get rid of a few sources; sometimes, you add a few sources. You simply need to see where the essay takes you, and what you need to support your ideas. Just note that cramming in a source simply because it was in the annotated bibliography is not required; just as every paragraph, sentence, and word in your essay should serve a particular purpose, so should every resource.
Format and Citation: Your essay must follow MLA 8 guidelines for both citation and page layout (formatting). A complete resource for MLA 8 essay formatting and citation is available here, in the Purdue OWL:
https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/
If we receive videos from the performance, the Purdue OWL has specific notes on citing multimedia recordings:
https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/chicago_manual_17th_edition/cmos_formatting_and_style_guide/audiovisual_recordings_and_other_multimedia.html
A guide for citing a live theatrical performance in MLA 8 can be found here:
https://guides.lib.monash.edu/c.php?g=219786&p=4061371
Note that the text of the play can be cited like any other book.
Incorrect formatting and/or citation will result in a deduction of up to one full letter grade.
Other Resources that May Help You:
Along with the research you have done, to help expand your intellectual repertoire, you may also want to review the following document (especially if you did get to attend the play, [or if we are able to see substantial recorded portions of the play]). This will help you think through the general structure and approach you might want to utilize in the assignment, as a research essay that may have an analytic review component to it.
https://writing.wisc.edu/handbook/assignments/playreview/
Due date: April 5, 2020, 11:59pm (Due date updated March 26). Essays should be submitted on Quercus. Submissions must be in , x, or format. No other formats will be accepted. Note that April 3rd is (currently) the last day to submit term assignments, per UTSC policy. Students will be updated if this changes.
Works Cited
Drury, Jackie Sibblies. We Are Proud to Present a Presentation about the Herero of Namibia, Formerly Known as Southwest Africa, from the German Sudwestafrika, between the Years 1884-1915. Bloomsbury, 2014.
LastName 1
FirstName LastName
Professor Sarah Lynn Kleeb
ACMB01
10 August 2019
Topic: Representation of “minority” communities in popular mass media and the representation of blackness in news media
Annotated Bibliography
Anderson, Lauren C., and Arthur A. Raney. “Exploring the Relationship Between Sports Fandom and the Black Criminal Stereotype.” Communication & Sport, vol. 6, no. 3, 2017, pp. 263–282. DOI:10.1177/2167479517713152.
News media’s over-representation of black men as violent criminals has seriously affected the ways black athletes are perceived by sports fans. Anderson and Raney conducted research to determine how black criminal stereotypes are perceived by sports fans and the extent to which such stereotypes are accepted by the general populous (Anderson and Raney 263). Findings suggest that, when exposed to a news story related to crime, with the race of the suspect unknown to viewers, study participants usually assumed that the accused criminal was black (Anderson and Raney 275). Among the participants, sports fans were seen to be more likely than non-fans to categorize the suspected criminal as a black person (Anderson and Raney 276). The authors suggest that the reason for such categorization is the constant portrayal of black players as criminals by sports and news media (Anderson and Raney 277). An unexpected finding from this study was the particularities of attitudes of sports fans (particularly combative sports like boxing or MMA) with regard to certain kinds of crime and violence. For example, participants who identified themselves as more dedicated fans of such sports were more supportive of athletes charged with domestic abuse (Anderson and Raney 280). The authors demonstrate how news media manipulates and shapes the ideologies of the mass population in categorizing and stereotyping individuals based on their race, but also demonstrates other factors that impact public perception.
Atuel, Hazel, et al. “Media Representations of Majority and Minority Groups.” European Journal of Social Psychology, vol. 37, no. 3, 2006, pp. 561–572. DOI:10.1002/ejsp.377.
In this article, Hazel Atuel, et al., conducted two research studies across the UK, exploring news articles from North and South Dakota and from California, to see how journalistic pieces from different US states depicted minority communities. Using content analysis techniques, they found that the ‘majority’ is often associated with political issues and identity adjectives in news headlines, whereas ‘minorities’ are framed as more relevant in headlines about social issues and ethnicity-based adjectives (Atuel, et al. 569). The study also found that articles about non-minorities tend to be longer than the articles about minorities (Atuel, et al. 566). While the study was conducted in different locations with different varieties of cultural diversity, it is quite evident that minority communities are generally more associated with racial adjectives than non-minorities.
Bleich, Erik, et al. “Migrants, Minorities and the Media: Information, Representations and Participation in the Public Sphere.” Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, vol. 41, no. 6, Sept. 2015, pp. 857–873. DOI:10.1080/1369183x.2014.1002197.
Bleich, et al., review existing research in the field of media representation of minority and immigrant populations, analyzing the ways such representation impacts the views of ordinary citizens and their relations with such communities (Bleich, et al. 857). Their research prioritizes an evaluation of negative media depictions of racial and ethnic minorities, depictions that ultimately shape public attitudes towards these groups and individuals (Bleich, et al. 866). The authors also explore the idea of media framing of minorities, and the frequent association of minorities with criminality and other negative attributes, which depict them as threats to society (Bleich, et al. 868). This article highlights the place of minority groups in contemporary society, describing the ways their experience of inclusion or exclusion, acceptance or marginalization, is shaped by their representation in media (Bleich, et al. 870).
Ferrucci, Patrick, et al. “A Black and White Game: Racial Stereotypes in Baseball.” Howard Journal of Communications, vol. 24, no. 3, 2013, pp. 309–325. DOI:10.1080/10646175.2013.805971.
Patrick Ferrucci, et al., conducted a study to test stereotypes of baseball athletes and their perceived credibility in the public sphere. Based on stereotypes showcased by mainstream media, such as physical strength, sportsmanship, and ability, participants were asked to rate white and black baseball players (Ferrucci, et al. 311). Results showed that black players were consistently perceived as physically stronger and more naturally able than white athletes (Ferrucci, et al. 317). It is important to keep in mind that the participants were mostly white individuals and, since they were exposed to photos of black players in the course of the study, they had already activated the “other” stereotypes in their minds (Ferrucci, et al. 313). Hence, in the latter part of the study, when the participants encountered stereotypically-consistent newspaper excerpts (that is, articles in news media that recycled old and problematic stereotypes about black players), they tended to be more vigilant, and frequently concluded that the author of the news article lacked responsibility for the stereotypical attributes conveyed about black individuals (Ferrucci, et al. 322). The study demonstrated the extensive and widespread cognitive dissonance that allowed study participants to consistently (and negatively) stereotype black athletes (and not white ones), while still rating media reporters with stereotypical articles about black men as not credible (Ferrucci, et al. 323).
Hinkson, Kamila. “Finding the Sweet Spot: A Black Boy’s Big Baseball Dreams.” Doris McCarthy Gallery, UTSC, 24 September 2019,
https://www.utsc.utoronto.ca/~dmg/downloads/publications/Hinkson_9Bats
.
Black characters have always been represented in a very limited way in mass media, often cast in supporting roles alongside a main protagonist. As Kamila Hinkson discusses, this representation count further decreases upon investigation of media narratives revolving around black baseball players, particularly those in Canada (Hinkson 1). Statistics show that out of the 882 players in the Major League Baseball roster for the year 2019, only 68 were black – a mere 7.7% of the total player count (Hinkson 2). Hinkson argues that the evident minority of black individuals in baseball has shifted the focus of young black kids to other sports, like football and basketball. In his exhibition, 9 Bats, Toronto artist Jalani Morgan wants to change this, opening the world of baseball to black youths as a viable sporting option. He believes that creating works that narrate stories about black baseball players will facilitate the imagination of young black kids, lighting a candle of belief in their hearts that allows them bring their baseball dreams to life (Hinkson 2). In this essay, Hinkson provides a comprehensive overview of Morgan’s intentions in creating this exhibit and points out to the critical topic of the representation of minorities/non-white players in mass media. This essay provides a solid framework for exploring and interpreting Morgan’s 9 Bats exhibition, while supporting the reader’s interrogation of the issue of representation of minorities in mass media, both within the world of baseball and beyond.
hooks, bell. “Reconstructing Black Masculinity.” Black Looks: Race and Representation, Routledge, 2014, pp. 87-113.
Feminist scholar bell hooks draws on her own personal experience of growing up in the company of black men, her father and brother, to demonstrate the widespread patriarchal portrayal of black men in media (hooks 87-89). Such patriarchal views have historically been formed and perpetuated within literature and news media, creating stereotypical images of black masculinity that manipulate the mass population’s perceptions and generalizes black men as violent criminals and losers, devoid of feeling, sensitivity, or egalitarian impulses with regard to the treatment of women (hooks 90-93). She points out that, although many black men do not subscribe to patriarchal beliefs, this aspect of their lives is rarely documented in media, as it opposes the dominant white culture’s evaluation of black people, and particularly black men (hooks 95). Hence, hooks helps us realize the ways much mainstream media consistently demonstrate only one side of the black experience, and one formed in the imaginative space of false stereotypes, which ultimately creates false representations in the audience’s mind (hooks 96).
Mastro, Dana. “Virtual Theme Collection: Immigrants as Minorities in the Media.” Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, vol. 96, no. 1, Nov. 2019, pp. 31–36. DOI:10.1177/1077699018824402.
The topic of immigration in the modern world largely falls into a steep and insidious insider-outsider binary, with news media frequently portraying immigrants as a threat to the welfare of the host country or (sometimes) mere recipients of sympathy (Mastro 31). Dana Mastro’s essay explores the cause and effect of such stereotypical news media coverage of immigrants and non-white minorities in modern society. Mastro demonstrates the news media’s practice of constant misrepresentation and underrepresentation of racial minorities and illustrates how that shapes their identities on both the individual and social levels (35).
Newman, Leonard S., et al. “Prejudice in Major League Baseball.” Journal of Sport and Social Issues, vol. 40, no. 4, 2015, pp. 329–337. DOI:10.1177/0193723515594211.
Leonard Newman, et al., provide empirical support for the claim that black baseball players must be better, stronger, and faster than white players to be accepted into the major leagues in America (330-333). The overall player value, or “Win Above Replacement” (WAR), for athletes in this sport was significantly higher for black players than white ones until the mid-1970s (Newman et al. 333). The study suggests that, while black players do not consistently perform better than white players, in order to break into the major leagues they had to live up to the highest standards set for them, which often exceed standards set for white players (Newman et al. 335). While this bias has faded to some extent in modern times, or – at least – has become less visible, that does not erase the fact that racial stereotyping still exists in the world of sports (Newman et al. 336).
Sontag, Susan. “In Plato’s Cave.” On Photography, Allan Lane, 1978, pp. 3-24.
In her renowned essay, “In Plato’s Cave”, Susan Sontag compares our image-based media world to Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, claiming that photographic images appear to give us the opportunity to hold the world in our hand, and in doing so, this molds our sense of reality (7). Furthermore, pointing specifically at the power of photographs, she argues that although we understand that the photographed image is distorted and only tells a part of the story, it still paints an image and an assumption of what the event might have looked like (Sontag 12). Photography is also a way of expressing consent and in a sense encouraging the act of what is being photographed. Pointing at the example of the photos shot during the Civil War which encouraged more citizens to participate in it, Sontag claims that photographs are a very powerful medium to reinforce moral positions and can even help establish a new one (18). This is further evident in the representation of minorities and especially black individuals in the news and other forms of mass media which promotes racial stereotypes by using carefully crafted photographs that reinforce such false ideologies.
Tyree, Tia Cm, et al. “Representations of (New) Black Masculinity: A News-Making Case Study.” Journalism: Theory, Practice & Criticism, vol. 13, no. 4, 2011, pp. 467–482. DOI:10.1177/1464884911421695.
Black men are usually portrayed negatively in the news media, which some might attribute to the bias of the news agencies which are mostly run by white individuals and comprises mostly of white journalists and reporters (Tyree et al. 467). Tyree, et al., thus conducted a study, wherein a series of news reports about black men was carried out by a team of black journalist, with the goal of determining whether black masculinity would be represented in a positive light, if the source of news was curated by those in the U.S. black community (Tyree et al. 469). This study offered the opportunity to view black (male) stories from a black (male) perspective. It also showed that more than half of these reports represented black men in unconventional ways – that is, ways quite different from the reports of traditional, mainstream news outlets – as they were able to present stories with more details and accuracy (Tyree et al. 477). However, some articles still succumbed to the stereotypical, racialized, patriarchal viewpoints (Tyree et al. 478). This experiment further demonstrates the difficulties faced by journalists who attempt to break out of stereotypical reporting tendencies.
Ungerleider, Charles S. “Media, Minorities and Misconceptions: The Portrayal by and Representation of Minorities in Canadian News Media.” Canadian Ethnic Studies/Etudes Ethniques Au Canada, vol. 23, no. 3, 1991, pp. 158-164. ProQuest,
http://myaccess.library.utoronto.ca/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.myaccess.library.utoronto.ca/docview/1293139740?accountid=14771
.
This scholarly article explores the mechanisms used by news media to employ a certain image of “minorities” and why they continue perpetuating such depictions (Ungerleider 158). Ungerleider investigates Canadian journalism practices and their dependence on government and corporations as news sources (159). He also explores the use of narration in news-making, which creates binary oppositions like “heroes” and “villains”, asking for the audience to take sides (Ungerleider 160). Usually, and unsurprisingly, when minorities are presented in news media they are put under the category of a villain or a victim (Ungerleider 161). Ungerleider also claims that media plays an important role in hindering social diversity and that media companies are currently solely organize around the profit motive, and thus they cater to the audience who share the same ideals (162). Media companies create such under and misrepresentation of minorities to promote inequality so the rich and powerful can maintain their privileged positions (Ungerlieder 163).
Welch, Kelly. “Black Criminal Stereotypes and Racial Profiling.” Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice, vol. 23, no. 3, 2007, pp. 276–288. DOI:10.1177/1043986207306870.
Racial stereotyping is a critical issue that society has faced for decades, and continues to face today. The constant association of crime with race by the mass media has created a very strong correlation between the two (Welch 277-278). American media has conceived and perpetuated a stereotype of the black male as someone who is violent and likes to engage in crime (Welch 278). Research also suggests that black men are found to be more likely to appear as criminals on news channels, which creates a subconscious correlation between crime and black people (Welch 279-284). Thus, news media categorizes and generalizes the whole black race based on a few criminals.
Yan Xu
Professor Sarah Kleeb
ACMB01
1006078076
13 March, 2020
Annotated Bibliography
Willis, Emma. “Metatheatre and Dramaturgies of Reception in Jackie Sibblies Drury’s We
Are Proud to Present…” Journal of Contemporary Drama in English, vol. 4, no. 1,
2016, pp. 196-211.
This article defines the play of Jackie Sibblies Drury’s We Are Proud to Present a
Presentation About the Herero of Namibia is a particular work of metatheatre contains extreme
violence. The author argues the metatheatre allows writers to intervene in the complexity of
representative politics and to explicitly position the audience in such politics which allows viewers
to think and discuss their position in multiple frames and perspectives, in this case, better
understand the conflict in the history of genocide.
Graham-Jones, Jean. “The Theatre of Genocide: Four Plays about Mass Murder in Rwanda,
Bosnia, Cambodia, and Armenia (Review).” Human Rights Quarterly, vol. 30, no. 3, 2008,
pp. 807–810., doi:10.1353/hrq.0.0021.
This article introduces a theatre about humanitarian and introspective genocide: The Theatre
of Genocide. In the article, these four different episodes are used to describe the cruelty of genocide
brought by the war. These four episodes include Robert Skloot’s powerful anthology of genocide in
the twentieth century.
Bonds, Anne, and Joshua Inwood. “Beyond White Privilege.” Progress in Human Geography, vol.
40, no. 6, Oct. 2016, pp. 715–733., doi:10.1177/0309132515613166.
This article builds on academic research on whites and white privileges and reveals that
white supremacism is a lasting social, economic, and political influence as a well-founded
approach. The article states that the supremacy of white people is not as a historical relic or as an
extreme position, but as a basis for the continuous development of racial and racist practices in the
settler’s country.
Hamrick, Ellie, and Haley Duschinski. “Enduring Injustice: Memory Politics and Namibia’s
Genocide Reparations Movement.” Memory Studies, vol. 11, no. 4, 2017, pp. 437–454., doi:
10.1177/1750698017693668.
In this article, it examines post-colonial memory politics in contemporary Namibia. It
analyzes how the Naama and Herrero genocide compensation activists have worked to incorporate
genocide in the German colonial era into the national narrative of contemporary Namibian
countries. It emphasizes the importance of memory to compensation activists, examines the way
Yan Xu
Professor Sarah Kleeb
ACMB01
1006078076
13 March, 2020
compensation claims are formed and the influence of political factors on memory production in the
state of memory after apartheid on compensation.
Nielsen, Mads Bomholt. “Selective Memory: British Perceptions of the Herero–Nama Genocide,
1904–1908 and 1918.” Journal of Southern African Studies, vol. 43, no. 2, 2017, pp. 315–
330., doi:10.1080/03057070.2017.1286843.
This article examines British officials’ views and participation in the Herero-Nama war and its
subsequent genocide in southwestern Germany from 1904 to 1908. It is defined as the first genocide
of the 20th century, and German colonialism was considered extremely cruel.
Kössler, Reinhart. “Facing a Fragmented Past: Memory, Culture and Politics in Namibia*.” Journal
of Southern African Studies, vol. 33, no. 2, 2007, pp. 361–382., doi:
10.1080/03057070701292640.
This article emphasizes the process, controversy and multifaceted nature of the process of
defining and negotiating public memory. The creation of public memory, including a formal
interpretation of history, involved various actors, including civil society, was still prevalent in
Namibia during the postcolonial period, and these actors used a variety of memories and relied on
serious inequality to promote them.
Carlson, Marvin. “Postdramatic Theatre and Postdramatic Performance.” Revista Brasileira De
Estudos Da Presença, vol. 5, no. 3, 2015, pp. 577–595., doi:10.1590/2237-266053731.
This article discusses the late 20th century, the Western drama emphasizes the importance of
theatre arts in addition to other elements of the text. Postdramatic Performance is well developed in
Germany. This kind of performance re-emphasizes “watching” as a Postdramatic Theatre, which is
the essence of the theatre.
Aragay, Mireia, and Enric Monforte. “Introduction: Theatre and Spectatorship – Meditations on
Participation, Agency and Trust.” Journal of Contemporary Drama in English, vol. 4, no. 1,
Jan. 2016, doi:10.1515/jcde-2016-0002.
This article indicates the trust in the relationship between practitioners, industry and theatre
scholars and audiences is an indispensable reference point in the field of theatre spectatorship. Trust
in the audience is a key component of Andy Smith’s theatre.
Yan Xu
Professor Sarah Kleeb
ACMB01
1006078076
13 March, 2020
Charny, Israel W. The Genocide Contagion: How We Commit and Confront Holocaust and
Genocide. Rowman Et Littlefield, 2016.
In the book The Spread of Genocide, Israel W. Charny draws on historical and current
examples, such as the Holocaust and Armenian genocide, and prompts readers around the world to
consider how they can contribute to genocide. Given a large number of people who have died from
genocide or suffered indirect consequences such as forced immigration, Charny believes that we
must work hard to resist and understand ourselves before the moment of truth emerges.
Hargrave, Matt. “Side Effects: an Analysis of Mind the GapsBooand the Reception of Theatre
Involving Learning Disabled Actors.” Research in Drama Education: The Journal of
Applied Theatre and Performance, vol. 15, no. 4, 2010, pp. 497–511., doi:
10.1080/13569783.2010.512184.
This article analyses Mind the Gap’s Boo, which features a cast of learning disabled actors.
It is concerned with the public reception of the work, particularly the ‘effect’ of an all-disabled cast.
The author indicates as long as people understand these side effects can lead to important insights
into the meaning of disability in performance.