The Tempest for autistic people

"I made this show in 2014 based on sensory games I had started to invent in 2003, so it was a long time coming. At the centre of the show is a game where Miranda teaches Caliban how to say his name and “how to name the bigger light and how the less that burn by day and night”. This scene isn’t in Shakespeare’s original play but is so vividly spoken of by Miranda and Caliban within the scenes and is one of the first games I ever invented for autistic individuals, empowering them with the opportunity to be the “teacher”. I have continued to direct this production around the world in many different languages for the last nine years, most recently at Teatro La Plaza in Lima Peru. With each new production, the show develops depending on the responses to the games of the autistic individuals and the talents and creativity of the actors, especially in the realm of the music. Notably in 2017, I directed the show in Catalan at Teatre Lliure, an experience that totally changed my life and gave me renewed confidence that these productions for marginalised audiences could be an ongoing endeavour. The Catalan actors literally opened up my own musicality and showed me “riches, ready to drop upon me”.