State of Play by Christopher Bryant

A magical journey to dispel our deep-seated fear of a fallible mind and body

“Anything can disable us at any time, sugar: don’t make it weird.” - Blanche DuBois, alcoholic sad girl and neurodivergent icon.

Using pop culture, queer theory, and theatre history to explore queer disability, State of Play asks audiences to question their assumptions about the way queer and disabled people live their lives. Flickering between a performance lecture interrogating the classical representations of queerness and disability we’re used to, and allowing these characters to take the stage themselves, State of Play builds four walls around the audience before slowly deconstructing the spectator-performer divide. The audience are invited to join Bryant onstage and take part in centering their own joy: through confession, through dance, physical contact, and artistic creation.

Anything can happen at any time: a car might hit you while you cross the road or a blood vessel may burst in your brain while you sleep. Even so, we have to keep on living: ideally from a place of joy and curiosity. What happens when you realise the disabled people you pity every day not only don’t want your pity, but in fact totally reject it? What happens when you realise that we have rich and full lives not in spite of our disabilities, but because of them?

Creatives

Christopher Bryant - Performer

Christopher Bryant is an award-winning playwright, educator, and performer. He's worked with the State Library of Victoria, Malthouse, La Mama, and Midsumma. Recent work includes the "brilliantly engrossing" New Balance (Suzy Goes See, 2023), and a current mentorship with Merrigong Theatre & Accessible Arts.

Emma Palackic - Director/Dramaturg

Emma Palackic is a performance-maker, researcher and activist from Melbourne, Victoria. Her work over the last ten years has been staged across a variety of festivals and institutions including: Monash University Student Theatre, Midsumma Festival, Melbourne Fringe, La Mama Theatre, Gasworks and You Are Here Festival. Intoxication, her collaboration with Christopher Bryant, won the Queer Development Award, and toured around Australia (2016-2019) before the debut of New Balance, their second collaboration. With Bryant, she is the co-founder of Before Shot.