Theatre
Blindness on stage: ‘Until disabled people can tell their own stories, we’ll always be stereotypes’
From unreadable scripts to ‘cripping up’, a career in theatre with a visual impairment can be a challenge. Chloë Clarke and Douglas Walker share their successes and hopes for the future
Moving away from tropes about disabled lives … Chloë Clarke and Aron Julius in Love, Liverpool. Photograph: Brian Roberts
Moving away from tropes about disabled lives … Chloë Clarke and Aron Julius in Love, Liverpool. Photograph: Brian Roberts
Caroline Butterwick
Wed 2 Mar 2022 04.27 EST
Last modified on Wed 2 Mar 2022 07.25 EST
What is it like to navigate not only a stage but the entire theatre industry as a blind person? From the practicalities of performing to harmful preconceptions about the roles visually impaired actors can play – and how blindness itself is portrayed – there is a lot to deal with.
Actors Chloë Clarke and Douglas Walker recognise scenarios such as audition scripts printed in a font size that is too small – but they also tell me about the good practice they have experienced. Speaking over Zoom from her home in Cardiff, her guide dog resting by her feet, Clarke [...]