I am very pleased to report that the play I went to last night was very good indeed. It was called summertime, although I’m not sure why, and it contained some of the best acting I’ve seen on campus. Steven, the director, deserves top marks; for one thing, this performance actually had something close to a plot, something rather bold around here. While some of the acting left a bit to be desired, all in all it was of a high standard. Mind you, there were one or two outrageous French accents.

As for the actress I mentioned yesterday, I’m in two minds over what to write here. Ultimately, I should just write about her as if I was dealing with any other performer, as the fact that she uses a chair is irrelevant. Yet I do think that Steven’s choice to cast her as a middle-aged lesbian is a bold, provocative and commendable one. he could have highlighted the chair, or hid the actress – whose name currently escapes me – in the background. He did neither, but gave her a role which stood out in and of itself. It was as if the director was saying ‘so what’, which is, of course, what we all should be saying. To the director, to the cast and to the audience, the fact that one of the actors was disabled was irrelevant.

Such things would hardly be mentioned by any other reviewer, of course, for that very reason. But I do think an important semiotic point was made last night. In not drawing attention to disability, he drew my attention. I think what they did was very commendable. My hat goes off to them.