This is the Point: Love and disability
Performances of award-winning play include one for the hearing- and visually-impaired
The Dora Mavor Moore Awardwinning play “This is the Point” is coming to St. Catharines, and one of its four performances will include American Sign Language translation and audio description.
The unflinching new play, about the effects of cerebral palsy on the lives of four people, opens Feb. 14 at FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre. The Feb. 16 show at 7 p.m. will include the assistive devices for the visually and hearing impaired — a trend co-writer and co-star Dan Watson applauds the venue for.
“We’re bringing ALS translators with us from Toronto and an audio describer — extra work, extra cost,” he says. “But it’s about making those spaces more accessible to people.”
The play follows two parents trying to find a way for their disabled son to express himself. There’s also the non-verbal Tony and his romantic partner, dealing with how society judges their love and sexuality.
Co-produced by Ahuri Theatre and The Theatre Centre, the play just returned from Vancouver and is touring Ontario over the next month. For Watson and his co-writers, the play’s reception has been a warm surprise, and shows audiences don’t just want an ‘after school special’ about disabilities. Much of it is based on their own lives.
“I came in thinking, ‘We’re going to make the show the way I usually make shows,’ and realized pretty quickly … all of us have to make the show together,” Watson says. “There were a lot of questions about what are we saying. What are people taking away from it?”
The play’s hard-hitting subject matter includes a warning about violent and sexual content.
“A lot of times, stories that involve disability are, you know, hero stories. People overcoming all odds. You feel sorry for them. What we wanted to do was try to be honest. There are moments of real comedy, moments of drama, and we’re trying to share those things so people get a full picture of all of us. A different kind of representation of what’s traditionally seen as disability.”
The sexual content, Watson says, is a way to “bust up the conception of disabled people that they aren’t sexual people. They very much are.”
The show also stars Tony Diamanti, Liz MacDougall and Christina Serra.
Touring the show is not easy, Watson adds. Nor is staging it.
“Tony, one of the actors in it, is in a wheelchair and he requires a lot of supports,” he says. “When you’re on tour, that’s not something usually done. So a lot of these presenters have taken a big leap and said, ‘No, this is important that we do this. It’s worthy of being on our stages.’”