AustLit

'In this article, we consider the work of Blue Roo Theatre Company, a Brisbane-based theatre company which 'creates contemporary performances led by the artistry, experiences and imaginations of an ensemble of artists with diverse ability and impairment' (Blue Roo Theatre Company). Writing from a dual insider-outsider perspective - as a scholar of disability theatre and a creator of disability theatre in conversation - we discuss the work done in the training and rehearsal room in the lead up to the company's performances, and the way it creates a distinctive performance style, poetics, stage presence, pleasure for the spectators who come along to witness the results of the work, and sense of community. We document moments in which facilitators, collaborators, co-creating artists, audiences and the media alike feel the physical, psychological, and aesthetic focus and force of voice. Movement and character are made to work by people with disabilities. In doing so, we provide insights into the Blue Roo Theatre Company's processes, and the aesthetic results it produces, and the way it contributes to a growing body of commentary around disability theatre and performance.' (Publication abstract)

'The article takes as its starting point 'We will look after you', a specific utterance and theatrical moment at the end of Lady Eats Apple by Back to Back Theatre insofar as these embody the potential aesthetic and political efficacies of the narrative strategies of recent theatre involving actors with intellectual disabilities. These narratives are first located within the context of the development of such theatre over the last fifty years and then within the particular processes of development of Back to Back Theatre as a company exploring the terms of the 'distribution of the sensible' (Rancière) of intellectual disability within contemporary theatrical performance, specifically in what might be termed the narrativity of postdramatic theatre. An analysis is then offered of how Lady Eats Apple reconfigures what can be said, shown, felt and understood in such theatre through the disorientation of the senses of perception and location of the audience. The analysis concludes that the company's aesthetic approach proves to be political in 'the time after' of performance, in its reconfiguration of assumed binaries of both the construction of the self as subject and of the relationship of care and dependence between people with and without disabilities.' (Publication abstract)

'John Green's novel Born to Run is styled as a political thriller with a very contemporary theme. It concerns a run at the White House by a female candidate - a Republican in this case - who is blindsided by a series of events that threaten to destroy her credibility and derail the campaign. Green's protagonist - Isabel Diaz - has the Party's nomination and is charging towards the finish line when the story opens. The presidential nominee is well-crafted as a highly intelligent super-achiever caught in complex family circumstances with a dark secret from her childhood that she desperately seeks to hide. The threats to her campaign include a rogue supporter redirecting campaign funds and a bizarre terror plot engineered by a group of ninja-like assassins operating in a high-tech shadow world.' (Introduction)