ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces the concepts of giving and taking voice in learning disabled theatre. Definitions of voice in the book encompass presence, self-expression, identity, and autonomy, and how these are caught up in the negotiations of power between non-disabled and disabled participants, the disciplinary formations of theatrical representation, and the politics of communication. Key questions of the book are introduced including the negotiation of ‘presence’ and representation in theatrical and wider contexts, the necessity of listening into speech (Lipari) the voices of learning disabled theatre. The chapter discusses how learning disabled artists might find a voice that is not merely that of the ‘entitled self’, built on systems of power and oppression in place since the Enlightenment, and how the marginalized and ‘minor’ voice (Manning) of learning disabled artists might not become co-opted into the exceptionalisms of neo-liberal discourses and racial capitalism. The chapter then considers the critical context of learning disabled theatre, the wider cultural context of the representation of learning disabled people politically and aesthetically in theatre, film, and other media at a time of eugenic initiatives in many countries, abuse within institutions, and the necropolitical inequities exposed by the global pandemic. Finally, the chapter outlines the structure of the rest of the book and the reasons for the focus on a variety of different strategies of accounting for 18 years work with Different Light Theatre.
