In each issue of D&T, we take a page-to-stage focus on a play for performance with your students. This time, Ali Warren considers this work by JJ Green – a fascinating theatrical insight into the world of autism.
Neurodivergent. It's one of those terms that we need to learn to understand and appreciate. I think its very much about the way the world has expanded, and we have become more aware of the huge variety of human life.
Autism, in particular, has been something that we, as a community, we have found ourselves trying to comprehend. It has been with us for some time; many famous figures through history have been identified as being on the spectrum – figures as diverse as Albert Einstein and Alfred Hitchcock. And as we learn about this range of humanity it seems that art will follow this sense of exploration. Theatre, as we all know, is the strongest way of creating empathy with people with a different world experience that ourselves.
In the same way as we have had plays focusing on homosexuality and plays from writers from the global majority, we are starting to see plays and performances that try to explain the world of the neurodivergent to us all and, of equal importance, give those among the neurodivergent community a voice. While The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time was an effective beginning, A-Typical Rainbow goes further.
A-Typical Rainbow gives us the story of Boy (we only ever know him by this name) from his early days and as he grows and develops. We see though his eyes the reactions of the people around him – a father who believes that he can ‘cure’ his son, a sympathetic mother and various people who help and hinder him as he goes through his life.
The play has a great richness in many ways, not least because it is drawn from real, lived experience. If anything, this play owes something to Brecht's Learning Plays, but coloured by a language-rich environment. JJ Green gives us both poetic monologue and information about the life of autistic people, which creates a rounded piece of theatre peppered with ‘I never knew that’ facts.
The central character Boy is an attractive figure and one feels drawn to him, partly due to the richness of imagination and the use of theatrical techniques to create the wonderful colourful world which his mind creates, and, partly because, as the protagonist, we share his journey in a very personal way. He's also very funny – the monologue where he parodies the flight safety instructions is very entertaining.
The multi-roling offers challenges for the actors in the company as they may have to carry the emotional weight of the father and the doctor, or Boy's school friend and then later, as another character, Boy's first lover, Daniel. It is interesting that the central characters are not named. We know them as Boy, Mother and Father, which gives them a universal feel, making Boy's story potentially applicable to many.
This is undeniably a theatrical work. The use of projection and puppetry adds to this fascinating and colourful world when Boy invites us into his imagination, and additionally through the world of the circus where Boy believes he has found the ideal combination of fantasy and reality. The use of a colourful padlock symbolises both this wonderful imagination and the constraints that Boy experiences in his life.
The use of music is also significant throughout and in a full performance careful choices would have to be made to make sure that the world of the play is supported and not undermined by the music. But the use of music is nothing compared to the use of lighting and special effects. This play calls for rainbow lights that must get brighter at specific notes, water effects, clocks that run backwards – at speed! – a jungle, holographic planets and a dragon billowing smoke. All of which makes a high-level challenge for designers in a way that not many other recent playscripts do.
All this, however, presents some challenges for school productions. I think that its not really a show for a full school performance. The richness of its theatricality makes it a little too much for your average school set up. However, the play is full of insights about the world within the mind of a neurodivergent character, which would be very helpful to people in developing understanding of the neurodivergent world. If you have learners on the autistic spectrum, working on this text as a class may help them feel seen.
The piece is full of reflective monologues, which offer opportunities for students looking for exam pieces, but it also has a number of lovely scenes of interaction between characters that offer interesting challenges. I particularly like the duologues between Mother and Boy, and the circus witch trial, which has all the hallmarks of the classic courtroom drama with a twist of bathos at the end.
I loved this play. I'd love to see it staged, and I think I'm going to be glad to have it on my shelf!
A-Typical Rainbow is published by Nick Hern Books, ISBN 9781839041037.