ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the research and devising process for A Dead Good Life(2018), which directly addresses the health inequalities experienced by people with learning disabilities – inequalities exacerbated by age and ageing. It considers how the company's theatre-making methodology takes the personal experiences of performers with learning disabilities as a starting point for the much wider examination of contemporary society and a critique of its flaws and failures. The chapter demonstrates how The Lawnmowers' method of performance-making stages universal, wide-reaching knowledge for the betterment of everyone. The Lawnmowers Independent Theatre Company, based in Gateshead in the northeast of England, is led by people with learning disabilities. The Lawnmower members – Andy, Debbie, George, Nick, and Andrew – took the death of founder member, Paul King, in a local hospital in 2013, as the starting point for an exploration of all of the issues and challenges around ageing well as a person with learning disabilities in the age of austerity.
