“OTHERING”

DEVISED THEATRE

Proudly part of the SYDNEY FESTIVAL 2023

CASULA POWERHOUSE ARTS CENTRE 13-15th January

Producer & Performer: Debra Keenahan

Producer & Director: Katrina Douglas

Set & Costume Design: Kate Shanahan

Composer & Sound Design: Paul Prestipino

Film & Video Design: Sean Bacon

Lighting Design: Matt Cox 

Production Manager; Madeleine Picard

Photo Documentation: Robert Brindley

LITTLE BIG WOMAN PRODUCTIONS

OTHERING HIGHLIGHTS

When the world says you’re no-one, how do you show you are someone? 

Othering is a powerful new performance that encourages audiences to reflect on the blasé ill-treatment of people with dwarfism, and in turn, people who are viewed as ‘outside the norm’. 

Othering reverses and inverts the gaze of the audience, revealing the world through the eyes of the performer to reveal an uncomfortable truth – that if you look different, you stand out from the crowd and gain a lot of attention but that’s not always a good thing, it can be deadly. 

Inspired by performer Debra Keenahan’s lived experience, this provocative new work addresses the physical, social and personal dimensions of personhood to examine the subject of ‘being different’ as an insider. 

By emphasising the reactions, attitudes and behaviours of the broader society in the construction of difference and disability, Othering encourages audiences to experience the world ‘as if’ they are a person with dwarfism and reflect upon how we use words and actions to ‘other’ people who are seen to be different.

Othering was developed with the generous support of of the Critical Stages Touring Regional Touring Residency and Cowra Civic Centre, Bundanon Phoenix Central Park and Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre.

Othering has been assisted by the NSW Government through Create NSW and the Australian Government through the Australia Council for the Arts, their arts funding and advisory body.