After spending last Saturday unpacking my things, Jenny agreed to another Saturday with me but this time adventuring to The Court Theatre where we saw an incredible production of a modern retelling of Richard III. You all know I’m a sucker for a good retelling (I read two P&P ones this week in my recovery time… along with ten other books). What a bonus to tell the majority of the cast how much I enjoyed the show as they walked by for gelato while Jenny and I were hanging out on New Regent Street after the performance.
Teenage Dick has a cast of six, and two of the cast are disabled. The rewrite centres the conversation on disabled experience, and I loved that the actors hired were disabled. I had a long conversation with my friend in theatre who has CP about the performance of Richard III that I saw a couple of years ago with a clearly able bodied actor dragging his leg around the performance space. What a brilliant joy to watch an actor with CP cast as the lead and crack jokes with a wheelchair user about disability onstage. I definitely laughed the loudest in the theatre at those jokes.
Plus – spoilers – instead of the bloody battlefield, this play ends with the Edward character getting an L1-2 spinal cord injury. I couldn’t help enjoying that juicy detail and telling the cast that’s my injury.
The play grapples with the Machiavellian means of power, and as we all know, that mirrors the ways humans just want security. Richard thinks if he’s already hated, he can only get power through fear, and he ends up bulling more than he was ever bullied. Blah, blah, blah, but also we all feel insecure, disabled or not, teenager or adult.
One of the books I read this week was Josh White’s Stumbling Toward Eternity, and I already think Josh White is one of my top five favourite living theologians, so it’s no surprise I loved this gentle and challenging look at the seven statements of Jesus on the cross. What really struck me in my reading was the power of forgiveness I offer when I know I’m one who receives the grace of Christ first. I don’t need to consider power something to be grasped when the literal God of the universe gave that up and put on humanity to be beaten and die for me. Josh’s words are much better than mine, but I’m struck with the juxtaposition of living in a world that navigates bullying and people being difficult or unkind towards me and how I respond in love rather than subversive tactics to elevate myself to a position of superiority or selfish security.
Some of the jokes were about the jocks peaking in high school, and I think a lot about the time I’ve spent in my “prime” that’s not what would be considered much. I’m more concerned with the continued growth as a person into someone more like Jesus, and I love the adventure I’ve been gifted that includes the complexity of disability and a life that looks different than expected but is so much better than where I was in high school because I’m so much closer to Jesus.
