A preliminary study of some broad disability related themes within the Edinburgh Festival Fringe

The Edinburgh Festival Fringe is the inspiration for this article which offers an initial consideration of some broad disability related themes (by disabled performers and by others). Comedy is covered in most detail with some concentration on a particular performer. Reference is made to other performance categories, such as drama, and to some influences from beyond the fringe. Disablism, othering and the freak show genre are amongst the themes which emerge from this exploration which includes consideration of whether disabled comedians can be disablist and whether disability equality legislation is impacting on what happens in performance. From the perspective of a disability aware audience member, unreconstructed disablism in comedy appeared to be fairly widespread within the fringe, mainly manifesting itself via the idle use of othering language such as the word ‘spaz’. This paper represents a snap shot from a huge and varied festival and is presented as a starting point which has inspired future deeper research.