Certainly a show that I would not have expected to see in an art class and that I would not have seen on my own, I was surprised that I did enjoy Jerome Bell’s “Disabled Theatre”.
The show started off very slow, but it picked up when the dancer’s finally got to perform. Even though their performance’s weren’t technically sound, you could see that every one of the dancers truly loved what they were doing and that they were having great time on stage, which made me smile.
One thing that struck me as odd at first was that Jerome cut three of the performances. I didn’t think it was fair or right of him to do that; however, as revealed later on in the show, he decided to include all 10 performances, so that made me feel better.
Just as a lifeguard bears no responsibility for people who leave the pool area, Jerome Bell does not bear any responsibility for the actors after the show. He is certainly not exploiting their disabilities for the sake of creating a controversial piece because Theatre Hora is made up of individuals who voluntarily chose to be performers because of their love for dance and artistic expression; they did not become performers to be coddled because of their disabilities. And also, even though they are disabled individuals, the dancers in Theatre Hora should be treated as normal people would be.
Overall, I had to say that I did enjoy the experience, and although I will probably never see a show like that again, I’m happy that I got the chance to.
-John Wetmore (Blog A)
