By CRIPtic Arts Artistic Director, Jamie Hale.
Cripping Breath is an exciting project for CRIPtic Arts.
We’re working with the University of Sheffield to develop an adaptation of Romeo and Juliet that answers a set of research questions about the sociopolitical meanings of breath and ventilation.
What does that mean for us? Some disabled people, myself included, have forms of respiratory failure that mean that we need machines to support us in breathing some or all of the time. The research end of this project brings together people who use ventilators or are likely to in the future, using theatre to understand what it means in our lives. The production end of the project involves me directing Romeo and Juliet in a way that centres disabled people and perspectives around breath and ventilation – as a piece of research by practice into those very topics.
I chose Romeo and Juliet because there are many mentions and discussions of breath and air in it – from “Love is a smoke made with the fume of sighs” to “No warmth, no breath shall testify thou livest” – the associations of breath, air and love – but also breath, air and death. It also speaks intimately to the disabled experience of wanting and fighting for independence with a family that continues to impose parental control, and what it might mean to decide to define your life on your own terms – especially if you’re not sure how long you have to live.
I’ve been involved with Cripping Breath now for 4 years, as a researcher. It’s included some fascinating conversations about breath and what it means to us, examining poems from my pamphlet Shield in a book group, some academic writing on poetry as a measure of respiratory function, and a set of workshops with the Theatre Collaborators – Kate (the design associate on Romeo and Juliet), Tatum (our Romeo) and Steph (our Juliet). Those workshops have covered everything from character development to the disability politics of the deaths at the end of the play. They have helped us unpick the play and how “how art thou out of breath when thou hast breath” speaks to our experiences with breath and ventilation, working collaboratively to construct a shared vision for the eventual Romeo and Juliet.
As well as that work, we were lucky enough to get ACE funding for an R&D process, allowing us to both research and develop our skills and focus on several scenes from the performance, and simultaneously explore what an accessible rehearsal process could be like for people with support needs like ours.
We still have two weeks of R&D to go, along with a good few workshops – which is lovely because it feels like this play is being raised by a village. As well as support from Grace and Luke, we’ve had mentoring from Jenny Sealey and Stephen Bailey, voice work from Christopher Holt and movement from Ayse Tashkiran, and we have more people becoming involved as we progress through the project.
After that, we hope to go into a rehearsal period before staging it at the end of May at the Barbican Centre.
I am so excited by so many things in this project – the fact that it’s letting us also research accessible rehearsal practices and work to make change in the industry as a result, the depth of engagement with text and lead actors it’s allowed me, and the fact that it demonstrates affection and romance between the two disabled actors taking the lead roles. In a world where we’re rarely seen as romantic beings, to claim some of the most iconic romance roles ever feels like a statement of which I am very proud.
For me as a director, to do Romeo and Juliet is a dream come true. I have always loved the play, and never thought I would have the nerve to take on something so big – but I was so interested by the themes in it that I decided to take the chance and leap – and I’ve never been gladder of anything.
You can read more about the project here:
