Regular audiences may know that we recently premiered our 21st Space Production, The Man Who Found His Freedom, here at the Space. Inspired by the life of local disabled resident and SpaceWorks member David Grindley, the play was devised and rehearsed over four weeks, finally playing to packed out houses for a week-long run.
The project started way back in early 2014, when David decided he wanted to tell his life story. With theatre shaping so much of David’s experiences (he’s a regular performer with mixed-ability dance theatre company Amici as well as being a Space regular!) there was no better way to tell his story than onstage.
David spent 18 months working with fellow SpaceWorks member Bill Keenan, interviewing friends and family to create an initial script. We then received Arts Council England funding this summer to turn these ideas into reality with a professional cast and crew. David and Bill were joined by playwright Sebastian Rex, director Danielle McIlven and Space Productions actors Sadie Parsons and Tim Blackwell (Festen) and Paul Tonkin and Avita Jay (the Roof Garden Players).
We spent the first few days in the rehearsal room exploring the characters and moments in David’s life. From this, a narrative started to emerge and the company decided to focus the play on David’s time at the care home and his subsequent ‘escape’ to an independent residential flat with a 1 to 1 carer. An early decision was made to fictionalise the story, changing the names of all characters and using David’s experiences as an inspiration for a new story rather than the staging of a biographical work. The plot focused on the central character Mikey’s struggles to communicate, his relationship with his carers and family and how alcohol affected his thoughts and behaviour.
David’s speech is affected by his Cerebral Palsy, making it challenging to understand what he is saying. Having a director that David had worked with before and the support of some of the SpaceWorks community theatre members who have known David for some time, eased the communication between David and the other actors, who quickly became attuned to David’s speech. One of the company told us:
“It was such a brilliant and valuable experience working with a mixed ability cast. I was initially apprehensive about how I’d communicate with David but finding out how patient he is encouraged me to persevere to understand him because it was always worth it! Having mixed abilities often meant we had to think of different exercises and warm ups, and be more imaginative to find new ways to do things as a group. I think this enhanced our creativity and it made me wonder why mixed ability casts aren’t more common.”
Every performance was warmly received, with two shows even getting standing ovations! We were especially proud that numerous people emailed us with their thoughts on the play, and we also received positive tweets on our Twitter feed. It’s tough to decide on some of our favourite audience comments, but here’s a few of the quotes that have really stayed with us:
“Amazing production that delivers a heart wrenching punch, through an honest, funny and gripping performance of one man’s resilience and determination to live his own life.”
‘demonstrates theatre’s power to inform as well as entertain. Moving, funny and eye -opening…..what theatre is for: giving voice to the untold stories’.
“Theatre hasn’t moved me, made me speechless, and tickled me that way for a LONG time.”
“#FoundHisFreedom at @SpaceArtsCentre is one of the most important productions I have ever seen. What a cast, what a man. Thank you.”
“Gripping, impressive, thought provoking. Bravo to all concerned – this was the most moving piece of theatre I have seen in a long time.”
“This was a powerful insight into one incredibly brave man’s disability and all the traumas and day to day (moment-by-moment, in fact) struggles sufferers go through.”
We also had a 4* review from FemaleArts, who said:
“There’s much to commend about The Man Who…, from its actors, direction and innovative staging. But perhaps more striking than any of these accomplishments is that it is free from sentimentality. Mikey is three-dimensional character with foibles and idiosyncracies, and the play isn’t afraid to show that his dogged determinism to ‘make it’ may also show other, less pleasant sides to his personality…”
But it wasn’t just the show that was a success. We held a number of tie-in workshops and activities, including post-show talks with the cast, crew and guest speakers, workshops with our community theatre company SpaceWorks, and schools workshops at local secondary school George Greens. Our post-show guests included disability campaigner Sophie Partridge, pos-ability performer Barbara Stewart, Alison King and Wolfgang Stange from Turtlekey Arts and freelance practitioner Holly Stratton. We’re incredibly grateful to everyone who came along and gave up their time to help spread the message of the show even further.
So, what next for The Man Who Found His Freedom? This was the first time that Space Productions had created a devised show based on a real story, but the end result has far surpassed our expectations and there has been an overwhelming suggestion from our audiences that the piece needs to have a future. We hope this won’t be the end of the story and exciting plans are afoot for 2016 – so stay tuned, and don’t forget to join our mailing list to be the first for updates!
All photography copyright of Renata Strabla.