Julie Helen: Cork play was professional, creative and had technical roles... for all

I had the pleasure of going to see “ Home Sweet Home” a production by Suisha Inclusive Arts/Cope Foundation. My brother Diarmuid has been working on this play for two years. I’ve been lucky to Suisha Inclusive Arts from the very beginning and seen how Diarmuid, BenOg, Ruby, Jason, Paul, Fergus, Matthew, Sarah, Florin, Aoife and Gerard flourish in it. They are ed by Eoin, Fiona and Andy. I the day Eoin Nash, first told me about plans for Suisha Inclusive Arts ten years ago when I was working in communications for Cope Foundation. He has lived and breathed it ever since and is a huge credit to all the team, showing that professional, creative and technical roles should be open to everyone.

Home Sweet Home is the most ambitious work of Suisha Inclusive Arts to date. It was led by the artists who have disabilities and featured creatively embedded access measures including Audio Description done by the cast themselves as part of their acting roles, which would have been very helpful if you couldn’t see the action on stage. There was also captioning on big screens as part of the set which made everything easy to follow if you didn’t catch a line or couldn’t hear very well. There was sign language interpretation too. All the bases was covered to make a truly inclusive environment.

My favourite feature of all, and the most relevant to me as I sat in my wheelchair was that it was a relaxed performance. 

A relaxed performance means that we all agree that people can move around, come and go and make noise if they need to. I felt my muscles immediately relax when this was announced at the beginning and it caught me by surprise, I didn’t realise I was holding myself, trying not to let my wheelchair creek or a cough escape. Once I had permission, I felt so comfortable. We were also told that there would be loud parts of the show but nothing to make us jump but we could avail of ear defenders provided if we needed them.

The show was set in Cork in the future where a group of artists are living together. Some are rappers, comedians, dancers and actors. As disabled people, their home is their right and their comfort, but the newly elected government doesn’t agree and wants to break up their independent living situation and people will end up in institutions again. The group decided to fight back with cups of tea, protest, and viral music videos.

We were treated to the songs, the chants, the dance and raps telling us how important rights and independence are. 

The writing by Jodi O’ Neill was clever and close to the bone, the direction by Al Bellamy was raw and real.

In Ireland our disability services are only forging forward very slowly and it takes creative individuals to keep it all going. A “changing of the guard” can set things back to a clinical focus all to quickly and I have seen it happen. Highlighting this in an artistic way was so powerful.

I want to say a huge congratulations to all involved in Home Sweet Home commissioned by Cork Midsummer Festival, ed by The Arts Council, Cork City Council, and Benefact’s Movement for Good programme, Cope Foundation, Cork Education and Training Board, Cork Opera House, and UCC Department of Theatre. The project was initially conceived as part of the BE PART (art BEyond PARTicipation) Creative Europe Network . The list of ers and funders are so important. It shows the level of collaboration needed to make inclusion real and it is so worth it.