PDF All in a Row Modern Plays Alex Oates 9781350126077 Books
Download As PDF : All in a Row Modern Plays Alex Oates 9781350126077 Books
Laurence likes pizza.
Laurence is about to go to school.
Laurence thinks it's okay to wee on mummy's pillow.
Like any couple, Tamora and Martin have big hopes and dreams. But when your child is autistic, non-verbal, and occasionally violent, ambitions can quickly become a pipe dream.
In a household brimming with love, resentment and realisations, meet Tam, Martin and Laurence's carer Gary as they struggle to care for their beloved boy. On the night before social services finally intervenes, who is the victim here? Who was the traitor? And who do you blame when you can no longer cope?
Inspired by his experiences working as a carer for over a decade, Alex Oates' new play is a kitchen sink comedy-drama filled with heart… and French Fancies.
PDF All in a Row Modern Plays Alex Oates 9781350126077 Books
"This is the script behind “Puppetgateâ€, which blew up the Internet autistic community by choosing a grotesque and grey-faced puppet to play the autistic child in the play.
The autistic community, accustomed to being dehumanized, strongly rejected this premise in the days leading up to the play’s opening, but the playwrite, cast and crew insisted on continuing with their chosen course.
Reviews of the play were a mixed bag so I decided to read it for myself.
I thought it likely that the puppet was a metaphor, and the child’s lack of control over his own life might emerge as a theme.
...It did not.
I was shocked by the way the puppet - the child - was repeatedly dehumanized again and again thoughout the script.
Though the child is 11 years old and responds correctly to direct commands, the parents and carer consistently speak about him in the third person, saying inappropriate and often galling things about him without any concern for the fact that he can hear and understand him.
Non-speaking Autistic people such as Ido Kedar and Carly Fleischmann have repeatedly spoken of the pain they experienced as children when their loved ones assumed that they could not understand and spoke about them right in front of them with no concern for their feelings.
Despite efforts to correct the misconception that non-speaking autistics cannot understand or do not notice what goes on around them, high needs people with autism are frequently assumed to be oblivious even when they’re known to be able to process language.
This play perpetuates this belief as the parents cavalierly discuss sex acts, the possibility of the child being “chemically lobotomizedâ€, and compare the child to a puppy without any concern for how he must feel hearing these things said about him.
The mother addresses the child as “you little monster†and later when the child is discovered to be innocent of the crime she thought he had committed (the father has been defecating on his wife’s pillows and allowing his son to take the blame) neither the mother nor the father apologize to the child.
If he were not autistic it would absolutely be expected that the father should apologize for allowing his son to be blamed, and the mother should apologize for assuming her son was the perpetrator.
When the mother also makes her big reveal about the reason the son is being removed to an institution, no one seems concerned for how this truth may affect the child emotionally.
I can’t know or tell if the author of the play intended to make it clear to the audience that Laurence was a thinking, feeling, human child who was stuck in a stunningly abusive situation with people who routinely treated him as though he had no ears, feelings or thoughts at all.
All I know is that he did not succeed.
The fact that there is no character in the play who advocates for the child, reminding the parents that Laurence can hear what they are saying, and the fact that the child was represented by an object, mean that it would be very easy for the audience to view the play only from the eyes of the parents and carer, rather than think of the puppet as a human child who is hearing his loved ones call him “a pit bull†a “little monster†an “animal reincarnated into the wrong body†(“never say that in public,†a character replies), and hearing his father fret that the institution to which he is being sent will end up sectioning him and that he will end up in a mental institution.
The humanity of Laurence does not come up as a priority once this play, and given the constant and ongoing struggle of autistic people to be recognized as thinking, feeling, human beings, this play struck a terribly sour note.
The playwright is said to have been a carer for ten years. I certainly hope he never spoke about any of his charges in their hearing as if they were not there. But the fact that all of his characters do so constantly (the child is ONLY addressed with regards to food, either permitting or denying it) makes me think that in fact he was one of the people who dehumanized autistic people.
If in fact he did truly want to represent the child fairly, he unfortunately failed... and badly."
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Tags : All in a Row (Modern Plays) [Alex Oates] on . Laurence likes pizza.</i> Laurence is about to go to school.</i> Laurence thinks it's okay to wee on mummy's pillow.</i> Like any couple,Alex Oates,All in a Row (Modern Plays),Methuen Drama,1350126071,Autistic children,Parents of autistic children,102909 Methuen Drama Scholarly,DRAMA / European / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh,Drama/European - English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh,European / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh,Great Britain/British Isles,Non-Fiction,PERFORMING ARTS / Theater / Playwriting,Performing Arts,Playscript,Scholarly/Undergraduate,TEXT
All in a Row Modern Plays Alex Oates 9781350126077 Books Reviews :
All in a Row Modern Plays Alex Oates 9781350126077 Books Reviews
- This is the script behind “Puppetgateâ€, which blew up the Internet autistic community by choosing a grotesque and grey-faced puppet to play the autistic child in the play.
The autistic community, accustomed to being dehumanized, strongly rejected this premise in the days leading up to the play’s opening, but the playwrite, cast and crew insisted on continuing with their chosen course.
Reviews of the play were a mixed bag so I decided to read it for myself.
I thought it likely that the puppet was a metaphor, and the child’s lack of control over his own life might emerge as a theme.
...It did not.
I was shocked by the way the puppet - the child - was repeatedly dehumanized again and again thoughout the script.
Though the child is 11 years old and responds correctly to direct commands, the parents and carer consistently speak about him in the third person, saying inappropriate and often galling things about him without any concern for the fact that he can hear and understand him.
Non-speaking Autistic people such as Ido Kedar and Carly Fleischmann have repeatedly spoken of the pain they experienced as children when their loved ones assumed that they could not understand and spoke about them right in front of them with no concern for their feelings.
Despite efforts to correct the misconception that non-speaking autistics cannot understand or do not notice what goes on around them, high needs people with autism are frequently assumed to be oblivious even when they’re known to be able to process language.
This play perpetuates this belief as the parents cavalierly discuss sex acts, the possibility of the child being “chemically lobotomizedâ€, and compare the child to a puppy without any concern for how he must feel hearing these things said about him.
The mother addresses the child as “you little monster†and later when the child is discovered to be innocent of the crime she thought he had committed (the father has been defecating on his wife’s pillows and allowing his son to take the blame) neither the mother nor the father apologize to the child.
If he were not autistic it would absolutely be expected that the father should apologize for allowing his son to be blamed, and the mother should apologize for assuming her son was the perpetrator.
When the mother also makes her big reveal about the reason the son is being removed to an institution, no one seems concerned for how this truth may affect the child emotionally.
I can’t know or tell if the author of the play intended to make it clear to the audience that Laurence was a thinking, feeling, human child who was stuck in a stunningly abusive situation with people who routinely treated him as though he had no ears, feelings or thoughts at all.
All I know is that he did not succeed.
The fact that there is no character in the play who advocates for the child, reminding the parents that Laurence can hear what they are saying, and the fact that the child was represented by an object, mean that it would be very easy for the audience to view the play only from the eyes of the parents and carer, rather than think of the puppet as a human child who is hearing his loved ones call him “a pit bull†a “little monster†an “animal reincarnated into the wrong body†(“never say that in public,†a character replies), and hearing his father fret that the institution to which he is being sent will end up sectioning him and that he will end up in a mental institution.
The humanity of Laurence does not come up as a priority once this play, and given the constant and ongoing struggle of autistic people to be recognized as thinking, feeling, human beings, this play struck a terribly sour note.
The playwright is said to have been a carer for ten years. I certainly hope he never spoke about any of his charges in their hearing as if they were not there. But the fact that all of his characters do so constantly (the child is ONLY addressed with regards to food, either permitting or denying it) makes me think that in fact he was one of the people who dehumanized autistic people.
If in fact he did truly want to represent the child fairly, he unfortunately failed... and badly.
