“This isn’t a sweet little thing where the audience claps for the nice disabled people," artistic director says of Phamaly Theatre productio
Two young lovers flee into a fairy-filled forest, so begins the tale of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” Except in this production, young Lysander rolls into the woods in a motorized wheelchair and comely Hermia follows with a limp caused by the muscle disorder dystonia.
Soon the stage will be inhabited by sprites, kings and queens, a mischievous pixie named Puck, with a prosthetic leg here and a cane wrapped in ivy there.
Curtain up on the Phamaly Theatre Company’s production of one of William Shakespeare’s most famous plays. Phamaly’s mission is to give talented, disabled performers a chance to trod the boards and play the roles all actors covet.
But to be clear this is theater not therapy, said Ben Raanan, 34, the company’s artistic director. “This isn’t a sweet little thing where the audience goes and claps for the nice disabled people,” he said. “We are trying to create rigorously artistic productions.”
