THE BUS STOP (Lung Ha Theatre Company/Traverse Theatre)****

 

By Arran

Link: https://www.traverse.co.uk/whats-on/event/the-bus-stop

Available until: Tuesday 8^th December 11.59pm

The Bus Stop is about a man called Jack who suffers a disability hate crime. A passenger makes a horrible comment about him when he can’t get his wheelchair on the bus. Jack can’t forget about the way the passenger spoke to him and the way she saw him. People have said horrible things to me too because I can’t always talk and even a very quick comment said in a moment of frustration from someone who doesn’t know you can really hurt.

Jack lives with his mum Julia and she is usually supportive but they have a row and Jack feels like he can’t talk to her. Julia also has other things on her mind which she decides not to tell Jack about.

I think it is a good story. There is much worse disability hate crime than what Jack experiences but I think it is really good to make a play that says ‘even saying this is very wrong and can cause a lot of hurt and mental distress’. A lot of stories about hate crime are about things which are a lot more serious which most people know are wrong and upsetting but the smaller things can sometimes hurt more because you feel you shouldn’t be hurt by it and that it isn’t worth doing anything about it. This play shows it is still wrong and it is okay to be upset if it happens to you.

It is a really good story and it is an important story. Gavin Yule (who wrote the play) plays Jack and he shows Jack’s vulnerability really well. I think that it is very brave. We can’t help showing vulnerability sometimes but we don’t usually show it by choice. Emma McCaffrey plays Julia and the Passenger (which confused me, at first I thought she was Julia and I was really confused but if you look at the names on the screens it says which character each person is playing). She makes Julia really caring but she is vulnerable too because of her problems. I don’t know if the Passenger really meant what she said, she was annoyed by the situation and she talked about Jack in a very incorrect way but that is why we need education about the correct ways to speak about people with disabilities and that we are proper people too.

I think Ryan Donaldson plays Jack’s support worker Steven and someone Julia meets, and Scott Davidson plays Jack’s dad (who has actually died but he still appears) and the bus driver. Steven is really lovely but there is a point where he has to set boundaries to protect himself. That is not a bad thing, he could not do such an emotional job without boundaries and I think this is expressed really well but it is a sad moment about the reality of caring for someone with a disability. Jack’s dad is really lovely and the bus driver does everything he can to help which is more than a lot of people would do.

I think this is a good play and I am happy plays like this are being written.