ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author aims to conduct empirical research with audiences in collaboration with Mind the Gap, along with interviews with learning disabled performers from Mind the Gap, Dark Horse, and Hijinx Theatre. He reviews existing literature and discussion on learning disability theatre and conducted personal interviews with practitioners working in the field. The author draws a self-reflective engagement with his own experience of watching theatre by actors with learning disabilities and awareness of my position as a non-disabled spectator. He proposes an embryonic typology of the aesthetic positions – or ways of watching – that audiences adopt in relation to learning disability theatre. One impact of learning disability theatre is to disrupt the very fundamentals of theatre. The five aesthetics of watching that the author have presented are far from exhaustive, but aim to facilitate conversation and analysis, and bring habits of watching to the surface.
