Abstract
This chapter offers an analysis of Christian O’Reilly’s play Sanctuary (2012), commissioned and staged by Blue Teapot, a professional Irish theatre company composed of people with intellectual disabilities. The play addresses the problems of the social relegation, infantilisation, and desexualisation of people with ID who, according to Irish Criminal Law, are denied the right to engage in sexual activities with another person unless they are married. Drawing on Rosemarie Garland-Thomson’s work, the chapter reflects upon the dramatic strategies used by O’Reilly in order to manipulate the ocular relationship between the audience and the actors/characters and to problematize social constructs, thus bringing recognition, and a new visibility, to people with learning disabilities.
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Ojrzyńska, K. (2017). Populating the Irish Stage with (Dis)Abled Bodies: Sanctuary by Christian O’Reilly and the Blue Teapot Company. In: Etienne, A., Dubost, T. (eds) Perspectives on Contemporary Irish Theatre. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-59710-2_17
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-59710-2_17
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