For Jane

Saw something amazing on Friday night .

It was nearly up there with ‘Our House’ performed by the residents of Belmarsh Prison .

But Friday nights ’25 Amici Drive’ was performed by The Lyric Theatre’s resident dance theatre company ,Amici, who in their words are ‘ a group of integrated able-bodied and disabled artists and performers who challenge conventional attitudes to disability and the arts’. The company was founded by the dancer ,Wolfgang Strange , and I am fortunate enough to have been part of his workshops when he came to my school .

It was bloody brilliant .

I find it hard to describe it without sounding patronising or condescending . But when you see an elderly disabled woman carefully manoeuvre herself out of her wheelchair onto the floor , while her ASD son seeks her out and explores every inch of her face with his hands , it was hard not to be moved .It was beautiful and the point of the scene was their love for each other and her fear of what would happen to him when she was gone .

she sang

‘I don’t want to die before you

I don’t want to die before you

Please don’t let me die before you

Try to understand

If I live forever

I will make the sun shine rain upon your face

Just to be together

Try to understand

Maybe I will die before you

You don’t have to cry

One more kiss upon your face

Try to understand ‘

The play was about community , acceptance ,love , having a voice and being listened to and was dedicated to the ardent campaigner of rights for the disabled, Andrew Ashby Saunders who sadly died earlier this year