Flying? Falling? – Conflicting Representations of Disability in Kevin Kerr’s Skydive (2007) and Brad Fraser’s Kill Me Now (2013)

Abstract

AbstractCanadian contemporary theatre is defined by a preponderance of previously marginalised discourses such as Feminist drama, First Nations drama, or Queer drama. The centre to periphery dispersal that has driven the Canadian cultural scene since the Massey Commission’s final report (1951) has favoured the rise of these traditions into public awareness. At the same time, the voice of disabled persons is hardly ever heard on Canadian stages. This paper takes a closer look at two recent texts, Kevin Kerr’sAfter a concise review of critical texts on disability studies, disability theatre, and disability aesthetics in order to establish an appropriate theoretical framework and terminology, the two plays are analysed for how they represent disability and disabled people. Kerr chooses to elide the different physicalities of his abled and disabled actors, establishing a transformative disability aesthetics. Fraser, in line with his usual modus operandi, opts for a more confrontational hypervisibility of his disabled characters and maximum emotional impact. Both authors are fully abled, however, so while their texts can be considered successful contributions to the representation of disabled persons on the contemporary Canadian stage, with diametrically opposed representational strategies, the question of an appropriation of voice remains pertinent.