SCROUNGER (Finborough Theatre)*****

 

By Arran

Link to where the live stream will be: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1o8jvP5djME&feature=youtu.be

Link to where the subtitled version will be: https://www.scenesaver.co.uk/production/scrounger-subtitled/

Link to where the audio-described introduction will be: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6A_W1u-fEg&feature=youtu.be

Available for: 24 hours from 31^st August

I don’t usually write reviews, but I wanted to review Scrounger because it is such a special and important play for people with disabilities. It was available for three days at the start of August and it is being brought back for 24 hours at the end.

This play is by Athena Stevens. She is a playwright and she has a disability. This is a fictional play, but it is based on a real incident she had at the airport. I am not sure how much is real and how much is fiction.

The main character, who is known as Scrounger, has booked a flight and informed the airline in advance that she would be bringing a wheelchair. When she arrives, they can’t get the wheelchair on the plane so they tell her she has to get off the plane. When she gets her wheelchair back, she finds it is damaged and she can’t use it. The airline does not give her a new one. Scrounger is understandably not happy about this and she does not want the airline to get away with it.

The story is presented in chapters which I think works well, the breaks in the action help give a sense of how long the problem went on for. Director Lily McLeish sets up the scene so Scrounger is on a chair in the middle of the stage in a small box-like room, which Anna Reid designed and it looks really nice. I think maybe the small box shows the restrictions in Scrounger’s life, but it’s a nice box because there are good things in life too even when you’re disabled. I could be wrong. I’m not very good at analysing.

Athena Stevens plays Scrounger. She is very intelligent and witty, she believes in fighting for what’s right and she works hard to get it. I think her name is ironic. She spends most of the play sitting on a chair, but she is very animated. Leigh Quinn plays all the other roles, including Boyfriend (who is affectionate and supportive but is human and he struggles too), airline employees and lawyers. Leigh Quinn shows the range of her talents, but she doesn’t take the attention away from Scrounger.

I hope this part doesn’t sound rude. Athena Stevens’ speech can be difficult to understand at first. But it’s like when you meet someone with an accent you haven’t heard before and at first it’s difficult to understand them, but then you get to know the rhythm of their voice. If you are struggling to understand, I would like to encourage you to keep watching or watch the version with subtitles. It really is worth it.

I think it is really terrible that things like this happen to people with disabilities so it is really good Athena Stevens has written this play to raise awareness. But I think she did another really important thing, she also showed that people with disabilities can be very intelligent, very talented and very funny with great personalities and be in a stable loving relationship.

I have a disability, it is not a physical disability, it is selective mutism. Sometimes I go into a situation and I can’t talk. Sometimes I am tired or ill, sometimes I am anxious or upset about something, sometimes I just can’t talk and I don’t know why. But lots of people assume I have very low intelligence and that I won’t understand jokes, that I won’t be good at anything and I will never have a relationship.

The way people talk to me is kind of based on those assumptions, but the assumptions aren’t totally right. I would say my intelligence is nearly average (though I can’t do presentations in front of the class), I do understand jokes and I’m okay at football and playing the violin. I’ve never had a relationship, but I don’t think it’s impossible. I think most people are very kind really and they don’t mean anything bad with their assumptions, but not everyone is nice and even with the nice people, it sometimes seems like they aren’t really speaking to me, they are speaking to the person they think I am so I don’t always get the right help, support and options.

This is something which disabled people face all the time. Sometimes it can’t be helped and sometimes there is a good compromise, but sometimes it leads to a really bad and traumatic experience which is hard to fight against. The disabilities which make life harder can make fighting injustice harder too. I wouldn’t be able to fight with my voice. Scrounger is good at talking to people on the phone, but she doesn’t have a wheelchair anymore so she can’t go and see people in person. And just because she can talk on the phone, that doesn’t mean it’s easy. She experiences rejection, metaphorical roadblocks, dashed hopes, people looking for loopholes so they don’t have to help her. It’s really sad and unfair, but it’s real.

Bad experiences will happen to a lot of disabled people at some point because lots of people don’t understand disability; because they work with a box-ticking system which we can’t always fit into; because they feel we need to adapt to them rather than them adapting to help us (but I will always try really hard to meet people at least halfway), and some people really believe we are less important because we are not like other people and that we should be happy with less than other people.

Athena Stevens reminds us that we deserve more. We deserve better. We might get there in different ways with different kinds of help and sometimes with more help, but it’s all about achieving the same end result where everyone, disabled or not, is as comfortable and as happy as we can be. And even if you don’t have an official disability but there is something holding you back from doing something, I think this play can inspire you too.

This play is sad sometimes. It makes me angry sometimes. But although I am sad and angry that things like this are happening to disabled people, I am also really happy there is a play about it to help people understand. And although I didn’t expect it, the play is funny too. I didn’t laugh out loud because I don’t like making noises, but I smiled a lot which is my way of laughing. Scrounger is very educational and makes important points about how poor disability support can be, but it’s also a really great play.