On Theatricality and the Space Between: Relationships and the Theatre(s) of Learning Disability

With reference to a practice-led research process and the ensuing devised performance-in-progress of Black/White, this paper draws on conversations between the director, actors and audience members. The key focus is an exploration of Féral’s claim that theatricality is a dynamic of perception, creating a special condition theatricality between the spectator and the one looked at (the actor) (Féral, Josette, 1998 La théatralité: Recherche sur la spécificité du langage théâtral in Poétique (75) pp 347-361). Further the paper explores how this is then complicated by learning disability.