THE AMAZING VANCETTI SISTERS (Tristan Bates Theatre)****

 

By Arran

Link: https://vimeo.com/45890374

Available until: It’s been available since 2011

I really like plays with disabled characters in. It makes me feel better to know people like me are worth writing plays about. I especially like it when they’re written by Athena Stevens. Partly because she is disabled too but mostly because she is a really good playwright. I know I can’t write as well as she does but she makes me feel like I can do interesting things too.

I think this play is about lots of things to do with disability. The different types of disability. What it means to be disabled. What other people think it means. The limitations you really do have and the limitations other people think you have. They are not always the same.

Jane is an intelligent disabled woman. She can look after herself. It’s not always easy - she makes mistakes, just like everyone else. But mistakes can be magnified when you have a disability. Everything can be seen as proof you can’t cope. That you shouldn’t try to cope. And once that’s decided, the person who has appointed themselves to take care of you often thinks they should make all the decisions. There can be a feeling that the non-disabled person always knows better than the disabled person. A lot of people believe this and they don’t even question it.

I haven’t had that problem with my family but I know the problem exists.

Not many people will have the exact same experiences as Jane has with her sister Elisa. They have an unusual family background. Their father was a successful magician and the sisters were part of his act. Jane was his assistant and Elisa played the piano backstage. A lot of their issues come from their unusual life. But the basic ideas on the surface, the situation of the disabled person wanting one thing and the non-disabled person wanting something else, I think a lot of people can relate to that.

Athena Stevens plays Jane. She shows Jane’s independence and intelligence. She shows some of the things Jane finds difficult but in her acting and writing she also shows what she can do. She has ideas and dreams and sense of purpose. Her sister Elisa (played by Lorna Beckett) is able-bodied but from the start of the play she seems to lack direction and purpose. Until Jane comes to visit. Timothy Knightley completes the cast as Michael, someone Elisa never expected to meet. I think the characters are really good and I like the way they relate to each other. Some parts of the play are is sad and some parts are scary but it’s interesting and it makes you think.