New Glasgow play confronts discomfort about disabled people’s sex lives

Robert Softley Gale, artistic director of Birds of Paradise, has written and is directing (We indulge in) a bit of roll play, a new production at Tramway, Glasgow, on 19–21 February that aims to provoke frank discussions around sex and disability. Softley Gale and co-writers Hana Pascal Keegan and Gabriella Sloss say the show seeks to counter narratives of charity or pity and to present disabled lives as complex and nuanced.

The play follows Ben, a young disabled man played by Ed Larkin, who lives at home with his parents, attends university and has an occasional girlfriend; Softley Gale says his parents make presumptions about what he can do that are often misguided. The production includes frank sexual content intended to serve its themes: an opening scene of the parents having sex on their kitchen table with chocolate sauce, an OnlyFans livestream in which Ben performs solo sex work, extensive sexual dialogue and references to sex work, kink culture and sex clubs.

Softley Gale says the material is "graphic with purpose" and will use lighting, staging and suggestion to present these moments for adult theatre audiences. An intimacy coordinator, Vanessa Coffey, has been involved from early workshops to establish consent and a safety scaffolding for performers and audiences.

Key Topics

Culture, Robert Softley Gale, Tramway Glasgow, Ed Larkin, Vanessa Coffey, Onlyfans