This is Not a Safe Space

According to a report from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, half of people in poverty are disabled or live with a disabled person. In her show This is Not a Safe Space amputee poet and performer Jackie Hagan demands that people sit up, listen and care about this, and not keel over with empathy fatigue. Drawing on first-person interviews with over 80 people and using DIY Puppetry, poetry and standup comedy, Jackie Hagan brings stories of those on the margins of society to the stage, with a particular emphasis on class, mental illness and disabilities. Far from sob stories, these testimonies reveal fully rounded lives full of spiky humour. Jackie weaves these narratives together with poetry and anecdotes, celebrating the weird, the wonky, the unruly, and the resilient. There’s Trish who is sick of doctors not taking her seriously because she is mentally ill and disobedient. Neil who got arrested for the first time because “you can’t run when you’re laughing”; and Karen who is a wheelchair user who thinks we’d be better off letting sheep take over the world because humans are making a pig’s ear of it.

Purcell Room