Restart Stages presents:

DARK DISABLED STORIES

Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts
August 5, 2021
The Isabel and Peter Malkin Stage at Hearst Plaza

-https://www.lincolncenter.org/lincoln-center-at-home/show/dark-disabled-stories-532

CREATIVE TEAM
Written by RYAN J. HADDAD
Directed by JORDAN FEIN
Press: MICHELLE TABNICK

DARK DISABLE STORIES can best be understood by separating out the content and delivery from the messaging and intention. Ryan Haddad has terrific comedic timing and if you entered the show at certain points, you would hear “dark” stories from a young, horny, gay guy looking for love in all the raunchy places. The language was very graphic and clearly offensive to two older women who walked out after too many sexual details; clearly assuming that anything at Lincoln Center would fit their expectation of an LC production. The dating stories, were relatable to anyone who has suffered blind dates as a gullible optimist, vulnerably hoping that this may be the one. Sprinkle in descriptions of how predators seized on his disability, and the poignancy is palpable. The content also includes what it feels like to be beholden to your walker, falling on lousy curbs, suffering all kinds of bus drivers, and passenger indignities making “abelists” squirm.

The messaging and intention were crisp and clear for two audiences, the disabled and the rest. Why don’t all shows start as this one did, with descriptions of the actors for the sight-impaired, and ASL interpreters for the hearing impaired? Will there be a day when this is normal and not “radical” inclusion? “If you came here to pity me you can leave now. I am not a victim.” The intention is to talk about disabilities in a way that makes it more accessible and less scary and dark. “I love my body. There is nothing wrong with me. I don’t need to be fixed.” (I’m just a horny gay guy like every other horny gay guy).

Ryan Haddad is tired of people’s expectations of who the disabled are and aren’t. He has a full-length play scheduled to open in 2022. Thanks for the courage Ryan, to put it out there in a way that the tone-deaf, dumb, and blind get a peek inside of how we are all the same and how we need to understand and appreciate the differences.

- Ronni Burns -