Set the bar high and you may be surprised by what can be done

May 12 2008 icWales

This week Theatr Ffynnon will turn the tables on its members when they stage a production of Peter Nichol’s play A Day in the Death of Joe Egg. In her own words, the company’s administrator Patricia O’Sullivan explains why

SINCE its inception in 1987 Theatr Ffynnon has maintained its unique role as a company working solely with adults with learning difficulties and physical disabilities.

With our 100 members we try to undertake at least one major project a year, whether it’s in the medium of film, visual arts or a stage production, and this year we have chosen to perform Peter Nichol’s play A Day in the Death of Joe Egg, a biting black comedy about the role of parents and carers.

It focuses on a couple struggling to cope under the pressure of looking after their severely disabled daughter, Joe.

Sheila, the mother, hopes for Joe to recover, while the father Brian lives a life of jokes and comedy sketches, creating exaggerated characters from their lives, to avoid the pain and frustration he feels at their hopeless situation.

This challenging, funny and uncomfortably honest play reaches a dramatic climax with a decision made under a cloud of extreme hopelessness, anger and frustration that could change Brian, Sheila and Joe’s lives forever.

Without doubt, it is our biggest challenge to date because the idea behind the play was to reverse the roles of our members by handing them the duty of care for every aspect of the play.

That is an incredible challenge because it is so very different from what they have done before. Although they have many times been part of professional productions at various venues across South Wales, this is the first time the membership have staged a professional theatre production with professional actors in a professional venue.

We are used to having our membership acting on stage or screen, as we did with last year’s project Matthew’s Passion in which 50 of our members were involved.

But here they took on the role of carers for the play, we put them in charge of everything from stage management, to front of house, to poster design, costumes, lighting, sound – everything.

In each department they have had guidance from a professional to help them with the technical aspects but the responsibility has been theirs and they have used the skills and expertise they have learned and developed over the years.

The project was born out of consultation with our membership and was taken further with a debate held in Raglan with our membership and their carers, to discuss general attitudes towards disability, and one of the issues that emerged was that of caring, of what it takes to look after someone.

We performed some excerpts of the play for the members and what they recognised was that it took a lot of time and effort to look after Joe Egg. We laid the issues bare in front of them.

While there is an element to this of us trying to help them understand that responsibility, it’s primarily about educating the audience and the communities in which our members live and work that any individual is capable of far more than you think they are.

There is some ignorance in the public arena and many of our members during the debate believed it was possibly because the public may not come into contact with people with learning difficulties or disabilities regularly. So they don’t know how to react when they do.

That answer reflects a courage by our membership to separate the emotional aspect, which I myself find very difficult to do and show a real understanding of the issues.

It also shows that if you put limitations on people, whoever they may be, in this case it so happens to be adults with learning difficulties or disabilities, then they won’t be able to achieve their potential.

If you set the bar high, which our membership expect, they will always meet the challenge, our membership consistently do.

That is exactly what has happened here and you will find that, first and foremost, A Day in the Death of Joe Egg is a fascinating piece of quality professional drama.

A Day in the Death of Joe Egg is at The Riverfront, Newport, this Thursday and Friday at 7.15pm. The box office number is 01633 656 757.