Company name: Graeae Theatre Company
Writer: Nigel Jamieson
Director: Nigel Jamieson
Cast: Frankie Armstrong, Jag Plah, Nabil Shaban, Tom Watt, Ellen Wilkie
‘Casting Out draws on personal experiences of Graeae company members, whose very choice of profession challenges so many of our assumptions about people with disabilities. The show uses humour, provocative images, songs – written by Frankie Armstrong, and different theatrical styles to dramatise the frustrations, battles and victories of individuals whose greatest ‘handicap’ is attitude of a society ignorant of their potential.
Casting Out was commissioned for Graeae’s Autumn 1983 tour of India. The show was performed in large public auditoria to a mainly English-speaking audience (due to the diversity of languages in India, English remains a national language). Audiences in Bombay, Calcutta and Delhi ranged from a group of 860 school children to members of the Government including Mrs Gandhi. In addition to these formal presentations, Graeae performed shorter and more visually and musically orientated programmes in workshops and education centres for the handicapped, Spastic Society schools and Universities. The tour received extensive exposure and acclaim in the Indian media and, despite our cultural differences, the attitudes and ideas expressed through Casting Out, certainly seemed to strike a chord with the Indian public.’
Graeae publicity, 1983