Samuel Brewer, Aarian Mehrabani and Chloe Palmer step out from the wings and introduce themselves. They then describe themselves with their words projected on a screen. They gesticulate their words to the profoundly deaf and speak louder for the partially hard of hearing. We are allowed to touch and feel them. We now know that the members of Flawbored are very much on the stage and they will be making their performance accessible to absolutely everyone in attendance. And if you think Flawbored was beating everyone over the head with a Wokeness never before seen, then you would be wrong because It’s a Motherf**king Pleasure is one of the funniest plays I’ve seen in quite a while, writes Michael Holland.
There is a narrative: a large company has made a very public faux pas about disability and has called in disabled talent manager Tim to salvage some of the firm’s reputation. Tim, (blind, shaven-headed, looks like a White supremacist) recruits Ross (Blind, gay and brown), a YouTube influencer whose book, ‘We Should All Be Blind’, will be promoted in order to make this particular disability the next big trend. The blind were actively leading the non-blind to monetise their disability.
But what happens when young people actively seek out that particular disability with tragic consequences? Is it a good thing that people should give themselves a disability after all the years spent telling the world that it is okay to have a disability? Or is this a trend that needs to be stopped? This was an uncomfortable conundrum posed to us.
Flawbored highlights the reality that discussing disability is like walking through a minefield in quicksand surrounded by people – who would love to get you cancelled – lobbing grenades your way as you apologise to everyone, every day, everywhere. But they do it in such a way that makes it hilarious.
In the one-hour, high-energy, non-stop show I was shouted at, signed at, asked if I wanted to feel the cast, and made to sit in the dark. And it was all in the cause of comedy and truth and information-sharing.
It’s a Motherf**king Pleasure is written by Samuel Brewer, Aarian Mehrabani and Chloe Palmer with bucketloads of scepticism to examine ableism and fetishisation of identity, and they do it remarkably well because Samuel and Aarian are registered blind and write from experience.
It’s a Motherf**king Pleasure and Flawbored should be going on to bigger and better things on the back of this show, is what they told me to say, and I agree with them because it is a fantastic piece of work that we spoke about all the way to the pub and through a few glasses of wine.
Soho Theatre (Soho Upstairs), 21 Dean Street, London, W1D 3NE until Saturday 13 May 2023
7pm (Matinees on 29 April and 13 May, 3pm)
16+ | 65 minutes | £10-20
Booking: Sohotheatre.com
