Role Reversal

By Gao Yuan

Stage photo of The Reversalof the Future

Disabled and able-bodied actors swap lives on stage

Audience applauded after the premiere of The Reversal of the Future at the Goethe Institute in Beijing.

R ehearsal was becoming intense.A middle-aged actress hurried onto the stage,attempting to communicate with another actor at center stage who seemed unmoved.Instead of acknowledging the actress,he stared bemusedly at something behind her.The actress seemed to realize the problem and reached out to touch the actor on the arm.A surprised expression crept across the actor’s face.“Huh?” he muttered.“You’re here already?”

Incredible scenes like this occurred frequently because one of the performers was visuallyimpaired while the other was hearing-impaired.The production,titled The Reversal of the Future,features actors with various disabilities performing alongside nondisabled actors.That day,they were making final preparations for a Beijing International Design Week performance on October 15.Previously,the drama premiered at the German Cultural Center (Goethe Institute)in Beijing in July.Despite only 150 seats,the small theater accommodated nearly 300 spectators for the premiere.Many more were left waiting in line outside and eventually sent away.Sun Yan,the producer,called the drama the first inclusive theater (disabled artists collaborating with nondisabled artists) in China.

They hoped that the drama would push the audience to think about ways to make the society more equal,open, and inclusive.

Role Reversal

The Reversal of the Future is set in a distant postapocalyptic future in the wake of global nuclear war that almost destroyed human civilization.The surviving humans are working to rebuild out of the ruins.Due to the effects of nuclear radiation,most offspring are born with various disabilities.But thanks to the power of future technology,dysfunctional organs gain superhuman abilities.Therefore,people with blindness gain sight as good as an eagle,and those born deaf can hear as well as dogs.People with missing limbs are transformed into super athletes with exceptional strength with the help of an exoskeleton and mechanical arms.However,the able-bodied minority cannot accept any physical transformations due to ethical reasons,leaving them relegated as a disadvantaged group that has less social resources and faces discrimination.Gender roles are also reversed,making males the vulnerable side.

Luo Tianran,the 18-year-old main character of the drama,is plagued with being both able-bodied and male.He is thrust into a desperate situation after being accused of killing his father.

The Leyi (Pleasure) Troupe,which created and staged the drama,is a young troupe composed of amateur disabled and non-disabled actors.Founder Sun Yan is disabled with mobility impairments caused by a rare disease.Working for a public welfare organization for women with disabilities gave her the strong feeling that some disabled people wield impressive talent that is seldom seen.That experience inspired her to organize an art performance troupe including the disabled.

The original goal when developing the script was to produce “something enjoyable” for women with disabilities.This inspired the swapping of roles of the disabled and non-disabled,and male and female.However,to rationalize the logic of the plot and characters,the writers began to ponder impairments and abilities alike and examine the causes of discrimination and inequality.They studied how the strong majority can develop empathy for a weak minority and how people in a weak position of minority can speak up for themselves and fight for their rights and interests.They hoped that the drama would push the audience to think about ways to make the society more equal,open,and inclusive.

The plot of the drama has many designs that reflect reality.For example,in the reversed future world,Luo Tianran has to deal with the stereotypes and limitations that disabled people often encounter in our world.Luo’s teacher advises him not to study mathematics,a basic discipline.Instead,she suggests he study to become a massage therapist because it is an ideal profession for the blind.Luo’s father is furious upon hearing this.“What the hell is massage?”he shouts.“It’s no subject for my son.My son should learn the academic subject of mathematics.”

However,Sun Yan worried that the lines might offend blind people in the audience who actually worked as massage therapists.She consulted Wang Xiaomin,a visually-impaired actor cast as a truck driver who can see long distances.Wang informed her that he was “very delighted” to hear those lines on stage.

Collective Performance

Wang Xiaomin was born in 1997 with visual impairment.He auditioned for The Reversal of the Future with Li Xinghao,a classmate at the Beijing School for the Blind.Both stood out in auditions and were cast in key roles.In real life,both are employed at a massage parlor,but they prefer to identify with their other gig: audiobook performers.“I went to work in the massage parlor because my teachers,classmates,and others thought it was the best job for a blind man,” said Wang.“But I believe my talent lies in the art of language far more than in massage.” In school,he practiced storytelling and crosstalk.He also started reading novels aloud for Himalaya,a content app featuring short audio courses and motivational stories.However,the meager income earned from those efforts was not enough to get by.He returned to the massage parlor but continued making audio recordings in his spare time and uploading them five times a week.He auditioned for The Reversal of the Future to improve his overall skills.

Development of digital technology has facilitated more ambitious aspirations and career choices for Wang Xiaomin and others with disabilities,which has been diminishing stereotypes about what the disabled must do to survive.

According to statistics,more than 85 million people are disabled among the Chinese population of 1.4 billion.The number is massive,but also a big proportion of the total population.However,ordinary people still seldom interact with disabled people in public.One factor is insufficient barrierfree facilities making mobility difficult.Another is the traditional mindset that disabled people should stay home to receive constant care.Few are aware of how independently and vibrantly most disabled people live these days.Of the 17 actors cast in The Reversal of the Future,12 are disabled.Some work for the blind mobile game companies,some work as talk show hosts,and others work as graphic designers,librarians,and employees at regular companies.Their collective performance has not only greatly inspired the disabled community,but also improved its visibility.At the end of the premiere,the audience shouted for the actors to return to stage for a curtain call.Each cast member was introduced to the audience with their disabilities,professions,and hobbies.Spectators were so amazed that gasps accompanied the warm applause.“I didn’t realize that the actor was blind until he came back onto the stage with a guide dog,” wrote one attendee in the performance guestbook.“I never realized it throughout the entire performance.Amazing!”Another message read: “It’s great to see the disabled people expressing themselves with grace on stage.”

Another audience member working in the public welfare sector commented that the drama helped him understand that “disabilities are a state of the body rather than an identity.” “We might use a wheelchair with old age,because infinite possibilities exist inour lives,” he said.“The drama helped us reflect on how much we have done for some of the more marginalized,unseen communities.Each disabled actor is a multifaceted and complete individual who has a colorful life story.”

Stage photo of The Reversal of the Future

A visually-impaired actor (left) and a hearing-impaired actress (center)rehearse a fighting scene.

Ma Yan (right)directs an actress in rehearsal.

Messages left by the audience on a poster after the premiere at the Goethe Institute.

Interestingly,director Ma Yan claimed that casting such a high majority of disabled actors was unintentional.The disabled and non-disabled actors engaged in fair competition through the auditions.“I was pleasantly surprised to see so many disabled actors exhibiting a far better understanding of drama,so they were able to deliver far more explosive performances than able-bodied actors,” said Ma.“Their daily lives are dramatic to a certain extent,and their perceptions about life are richer and more diverse.And navigating the difficulties caused by physical impairments makes them pay greater attention to the state of their bodies.All this gives disabled actors an advantage in both control of their bodies and understanding of the plot.”

“So I reached consensus with the producer before rehearsals that the drama should be staged in a professional manner without any bias,” he continued.“We should be confident in the people with disabilities and avoid negating their acuity as dramatic actors because of physical impairments.”

“I didn’t want the audience to leave with an impression that disabled people could act,” said Sun Yan.“I wanted them to be impressed with the complete performance.”

Communication on Stage

For Ma Yan,ensuring smooth interaction between disabled and non-disable actors was a challenge.After majoring in theater at the University of Southern California in the U.S.,Ma authored a drama titled The Stars about autistic people and their family lives.The drama has enjoyed more than 20 showings in Beijing.Sun was so deeply moved by the drama that she invited Ma to direct The Reversal of the Future.

Although Ma has extensive experience as a stage director,he was quite intimidated by the complex composition of this cast.For example,when hearing and sight impaired actors perform on the same stage,they can’t take cues the same way.Ma encouraged the actors to exchange information and cultivate a tacit understanding among themselves with more body movements and contacts.Some visuallyimpaired actors with some light perception were instructed to take their cues according to the stage lights,while the actors without light perception were instructed to feel the temperature change as the lights brightened or dimmed.Some hearing impaired actors could communicate with sign language,but others could not,so the production utilized software to turn verbal communication into written language.Unfortunately,it was not very effective.Eventually,Wang Yu,an actor with impaired hearing who can hear with hearing aid and communicate with both sign language and spoken language,served as an interpreter to bridge the gap.

Visually-impaired Bai Ma played the part of Wang Yu’s father.The actors engaged in heavy interactions,including some fighting scenes.“One of us is blind and the other is deaf,” said Wang Yu.“We had to help each other in rehearsals.My ‘father’ repeated what the director said,and I helped him hit his marks and blocking with verbal reminders.”

“Actors with different impairments certainly encountered some difficulties in rehearsals,” said Ma.“However,the majority of these difficulties could be overcome with flexibility.What’s more,our troupe had a distinct advantage: The actors could understand each other’s physical limitations and help each other.Noise during rehearsals would make it difficult for those depending on hearing aids to follow the director’s instructions and hear the lines of other actors.Therefore,everyone conscientiously kept quiet without being asked.Other than the director’s directions and the actors’ lines,not a peep was heard from the rehearsal hall,which is almost impossible when rehearsing with traditional casts.”

Ma was impressed by the sincerity and enthusiasm of the actors,which made the work fulfilling and pleasant.

“Neither the theater community nor academia has engaged in enough research on drama for people with disabilities and inclusive theater troupes,” he added.“If our work were to become a model and sample for research to promote policy development and professional research,it would make our production of The Reversal of the Future and the existence of the Leyi Troupe even more significant.”