Putting disabled rights centre stage
Jess Thom and her troupe of artists at Touretteshero are using disability as a force for creativity. She talks to John Blow before their latest show premieres in Bridlington.
AN enlightening conversation with a friend got Jess Thom thinking differently about her experiences with Tourette’s syndrome. “I’d had tics since early childhood and they’d intensified in my early 20s and I’d been finding that process of adjustment really difficult,” she remembers. “And then I had a conversation where Matthew described my tics as like a ‘language generating machine’ and said that not doing something creative with them would be wasteful.”
It was a revelation that spawned Touretteshero, co-founded by Jess and Matthew Poutney in 2010 as a disabled-led arts organisation. Using Tourette’s syndrome as a catalyst, its mission is to create a more inclusive and socially just world.
And inspired by one of her vocal tics – Jess says “biscuit” many times each day – their concept of Biscuit Land is “the surreal world that my tics create around me”, which is “part real, part imaginary” and to which its artists have periodically returned to explore issues related to disability.
Burnt Out In Biscuit Land is a follow-up to previous shows including Backstage In Biscuit
Land, and later a neurodiverse version of Samuel Beckett’s Not
I, as well as a Bafta-nominated Channel 4 comedy short Biscuitland.
Running for just two performances tomorrow and on Thursday, Burnt Out In Biscuit Land will be at Bridlington Spa’s Royal Hall from 7pm in partnership with Arcade, a community producing company based on the Yorkshire coast.
Set in a surreal, apocalyptic bunker, the audience joins three neurodiverse inhabitants as they “do their best to survive using music, laughter and Keith Chegwin” during a show which blends film, live performance and conversation.
Jess, from Peckham, in London, says: “It is a response to the challenges and pressures of disabled people. I'm clinically extremely vulnerable to Covid so I’ve spent a lot of the last few years shielding and having to think about risk.
“And there were moments where I wasn’t sure whether being an artist was still a possibility and how to do that safely. Whereas the other theatre shows we’ve made were very much about disabled people’s right to access arts and cultural spaces – and to exist within theatre spaces and within cultural and creative spaces – Burnt Out In Biscuit Land is very much about disabled people’s right to exist, full stop, in the world.
"It has moments of rage and moments of joy. It mixes film and conversation and performance to try and create space that maybe gives voice to some of the experiences that disabled people have been having over the last few years that maybe aren’t always very visible in mainstream discussion about what's been happening.”
The show premieres in Bridlington as part of a presentation by The Old Courts and Collaborative Touring Network collective of organisations.
Performances will be relaxed, captioned and audio-described for the audience. There will also be Covid-related access provisions in place and enough room for social distancing.
An unreserved seating arrangement is available, so wheelchair users can book their tickets online.
“Relaxed performance” is important for people with conditions such as Tourette’s – which can cause a person to make involuntary sounds and movements – as it allows for movement and noise in the audience. Jess would like to see more of it at venues such as theatres and the cinema where there is an “expectation that you just sit still” and be quiet.
She says: “When we were touring Backstage In Biscuit Land, lots of venues said, ‘Oh, we’re really interested in relaxed performance and we’d really be interested in making our work accessible to disabled people, but we haven’t had the right type of show yet’.
“So it became clear there was a cultural curation around what work was and wasn’t being made accessible to disabled people, both as audience and performers.”
With the Channel 4 episode, first shown in November last year and still available on demand, she was able to reach new viewers.
“That felt like an opportunity to speak
to a wider audience, to centre social care: the people, the relationships, the systems that make my life and many other people’s lives possible. There’s lots of discussion about social care but not often from the experience of those who use or that really explores what it makes possible in people’s lives. So it felt really exciting to use the world of Biscuit Land to explore that.”
Touretteshero will be supporting local artists at the Bridlington show, too, as Ruby Addy – in partnership with arts commissioning body Unlimited, which works with
disabled artists – has created original music set in response to the themes of the show for audiences to enjoy as they arrive.
The organisation’s relationship with Arcade, run by Sophie Drury-Bradey and Rach Drew, inset, was established before the pandemic with activities such as Heroes of the Imagination, a children’s event at Scarborough Museum.
Sophie says: “Jess is internationally renowned for her artistic and activist work and the story she wants to share is vital for the East Riding, where 19 per cent of
people identify as disabled. Many people’s lives have been affected by Covid, especially their confidence coming to the theatre and for some this hasn’t gone away. We’re working closely with The Spa to put access and Covid provisions in place so that all audience members feel safe and welcome.”
Tickets, which are priced at ‘pay what you can’ to ensure money isn’t a barrier, are on sale now. Book at www.hello-arcade.com/ burnt-out-in-biscuit-land or call the Bridlington Spa box office on 01262 678258.