Requiem

“Risk of death from COVID-19 between Jan 24 and Nov 30, 2020… was 3.1 times greater for men with disabilities and 3.5 times greater for women with disabilities than for men and women without disabilities.” The Lancet

According to the charity Mencap, life expectancy for people with a learning disability is eighteen years shorter for women and fourteen years shorter for men than in the general population.

With the experiences of neurodivergent and learning disabled people at its heart, Requiem is a multisensory, immersive dance-theatre performance that meditates upon this unfairness.

Working with three learning disabled and/or autistic actors from Hijinx Academy, and three professional dancers, choreographer Karol Cysewski (Homo Irrationalis/NDCWales/Ballet Cymru) has created Requiem; a new performance exploring the real lives behind these shocking statistics and the devastating impact of health inequality.

Why does this disparity reach even beyond death? Why do people die sooner if they are neurodivergent or learning disabled? A dance-theatre requiem that mourns those people who are prematurely taken away and demands to know why is there inequality even in death?

Age guidance: 14 years plus

This is a promenade performance and will involve the audience moving around the space as the performance unfolds. A limited number of chairs will be available for audience members with access requirements.