one4review | On 14, Aug 2019

The Accessibility Gala is designed to be comedy for folks who need support and help to enjoy it, from the live captions of Claire Hill – for the sake of deaf and hard of hearing participants, to easy wheelchair access – for both audience and performers.

The gala is the brainchild of Josh Hepple, and starred Jonny Pelham, Eshaan Akbar, and Aaron Simmonds, as well as a talk from Hepple.

In Hepple’s talk, the statistics of the lack of shows showing any disability awareness is shocking. This is across a wide range of genres, and at venues big and small. Plenty of rooms are simply inaccessible by wheelchair, while many shows have never been signed or captioned. He continues to campaign to make the fringe accessible to all.

In the meantime, Pelham’s tales of childhood camp, mugging, and his girlfriend’s expectations kept the audience giggling. Akbar focused on race to begin with, but as part of a wide range of comic anecdotes. Final act Simmonds told tales of being in a wheelchair, bantered about favourite disabilities, and told funny-but-awkward tales of being patronised for his mobility issues.

Eye-opening and funny, you can’t help but leave this show with a lot to think about. I can only hope that the venues, production companies, and performers who make this Fringe so great, will also do so.

***
Reviewed by Gill
Pleasance Dome – QueenDome
Aug 12th, 19:00 -20:00