Super Discount – Back to Back Theatre and Malthouse

Overview

If there’s one thing I’ve learnt from researching Super Discount, it’s that ‘intellectual disability’ is hardly an appropriate term, because this crew seems far cleverer than I. Spawned from Geelong’s internationally acclaimed Back to Back Theatre Company (makers of the 2012 Helpmann and Green Room Award-winning play Ganesh Versus the Third Reich), Bruce Gladwin’s Super Discount will be wowing Sydney and Melbourne audiences this spring.

In accordance with Back to Back’s longstanding tradition, Super Discount was written through improvisation by six actors — all but one suffering from a perceived intellectual disability — alongside Gladwin. Originally a collaboration with artist Tim Sharp, Super Discount recently underwent a name change when creative differences arose. What’s left is a production that gives voice to those who might normally be ignored and allows for diversity in their representation, “questioning how audiences read representations of disability” and stereotypical perceptions.

“The general consensus in contemporary societies is that if you’re disabled it would be very inappropriate to make you [your character] evil," says Gladwin. "And really, evil is a capacity that we all have — to be evil is to be human. You know, if you can’t play evil because you’ve got a disability, you’re actually saying you’re something other than human.”

If you’ve never known the disabled experience, Super Discount will clue you in. This time around the company has stripped away the scenography, leaving behind only the actors raw and exposed. "[They’re holding] what is a very detailed narrative in their hands onstage and all they have is their skill as actors," says Gladwin. "There’s nothing for them to hide behind and there’s always an element around disability that involves essentially a kind of voyeurism. In a way the actors are asking you to look at them and look only at them.”

But Gladwin insists that this production is joyous, because ultimately, he says, “the piece is empowering”. Under the guise of superheroes, the performers — including Mark Deans, Simon Laherty, Sarah Mainwaring, Scott Price, Brian Tilley and David Woods — are talking some universal stuff. I mean, in spite of our perfectly staged and photoshopped Facebook pictures, even those of us fighting crime are flawed.

“Iron Man has a weak heart," says Gladwin. "Thor is lame and walks on a walking stick as Doctor Donald Blake; Rogue in X-Men can’t touch anyone without killing them. Through some form of flaw or disability or mutation they [superheroes] exist as outsiders in society ... They are flawed and human despite the fact that they also have some sort of incredible superpower or access to some sort of incredible, empowering technology.”

Super Discount is equal parts humorous and poignant, so expect to be “confronted, brought to tears and brought to joyous laughter” all at the same time. Maybe rewrite the dictionary's definition of 'disability' while you're at it. You can join the ensemble at the Malthouse Theatre November 13 to December 1 for something that packs more than a little ka-pow.