Sandra Umathum

Benjamin Wihstutz

Jerome Bel's "Disabled Theater" polarizes the public: on the one hand celebrated as an outstanding conceptual dance piece, on the other hand harshly criticized for being a contemporary "freak show." In either case, the production raises central questions on the role of people with cognitive differences in Western society, as well as on basic norms and conventions of theater and dance: Can a theatrical stage serve as a place of emancipation for people with disabilities? To what extent are performers with disabilities able to challenge and subvert the rules of an economized society, above all its performance principle? What would the training of an actor or a dancer look like without an ideology of ability? Do we need new categories of aesthetic judgment? The book takes "Disabled Theater" by Jerome Bel and Theater Hora as a springboard to a broader transdisciplinary discussion on "theater and disability," to a debate at the intersections of politics and aesthetics, of inclusion and exclusion, of virtuosity and dilettantism, of identity and empowerment.

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