Centre Stage-Disabled performers make powerful impact at Queen’s Theatre.

Review of ‘Centre Stage’ show at the Queens Theatre, Hornchurch.

The Queen’s Theatre’s latest Blueprint show Centre Stage was a variety show featuring disabled performers. We sent our own disability champion and autistic conservative Charlie Keeble to review the show. Which was an obvious choice as he is also a long time patron of the theatre. 

Disabled people make interesting and eccentric approaches to their ability to perform in science and art. As Hans Asperger once said “It seems that for success in science or art a dash of autism is essential.” So here at the Queens Theatre I went along to review how eccentric these disabled performers could bring a variety show to life and if they could pull it off successfully with a touch of neurodiversity and deafness to the stage. 

The show began with a music set by a deaf DJ called Chinaman Troi Lee. I liked the sound of his decks warming up the audience to get me in the mood for this show. The presentation of the set was communicated with a mix of different methods for deaf and blind people. There was a sign language interpreter, a speech to text reader on the screen and for the autistics like me, a limited use of lights and sounds that made the experience sensory friendly. 

The host was Britny Virginia and she began with some poetry that told of no shame but pride in her tribe. It was a wonderful poem that evoked hope and happiness. These are the kind of qualities that I like to hear from a disabled person, as it is very much what disability activism should be. No pity for us, just recognising that we have good value in life. 

Film maker Sarah Elliot had a film featuring a singalong of disabled people on ukuleles. I went up to Sarah afterwards and told her how much I admired the film showing the joy disabled people can bring. We had a good talk about our disability advocacy work and I mentioned to her about my autistic conservative objective. It turns out that we both have the same aspirations for disabled people in that they must strive for their own self-determination. With her film work I believe she can create a positive impact for people like us. 

There was more poetry coming from the next two acts. Rayhad Ali had a poem about entrapment in a bad state of mind and the fear of losing oneself. I thought it had a lot of poignant metaphysical imagery of a person struggling with mental health issues. To use your mental health like that is a very powerful and dramatic thing to do. In the past it’s been proven by artists that you can use the pain of your tortured soul to make stunning art and I think that is beautiful in itself. 

Zahra Kiernan is an Irish comedian and poet who brought her guitar along to play some musical notes to her jokes. They were very light hearted anecdotes about typical Irish culture and an ode to a coffee shop. 

The headline act was Miss Jacqui, a black wheelchair user who came dressed in a bright orange outfit. I think she wanted to make herself look like a bright flame that could shine a light on the beauty of imperfectability. A bit like my autistic conservative emblem which has a torch on it. She sang two songs. One was about the colour of walls being full of emotion. It was to do with turning negative words into art by colouring the walls into a thing called hope. 

One song from Miss Jacqui involved audience participation that I was happy to play along with. This was called ‘My Body is Beautiful’ and the audience repeated certain words from the lyrics to induce a positive mindset. I think Miss Jacqui is a bold and positive figure for disabled people in the music industry. One song I found very powerful in Jacqui’s performance for my own personal taste was called ‘Freedom’. The words were about rejecting comfortable slavery for dangerous freedom. I find that really worthy of acceptance.