In new musical, disability rights activist tackles assisted suicide
.- Physician-assisted suicide has been a subject of controversy for several years, but Liz Carr is taking the issue somewhere it has never been before: the musical theatre.
Carr, a disabilities activist, comedian and actress, created a production entitled Assisted Suicide: the Musical, which has been staged at various English theatres this month. The musical is aimed at drawing critical attention to the downfalls of physician-assisted suicide, particularly its effect on marginalizing the disabled.
“I wanted to use musical theatre to look at this difficult subject with the lightness and the kind of heightened realism of musical theatre,” she said in a video interview with Unlimited, an initiative for disabled artists.
“This musical, in a way, is my playground for…my thoughts on this subject, I have never seen this portrayed in culture – and I want to see that,” Carr continued, calling the musical colorful and vibrant.
Physician-assisted suicide has not been legalized in Carr’s home country of England, but it has gained traction in other countries including the Netherlands and Canada.
The topic of assisted suicide has also made a splash in Hollywood, with the film Me Before You showing a young quadriplegic’s path to love and ultimately euthanasia.
In Carr’s mind, films such as these ignore both mental health issues as well as social barriers, which is why she wanted to create a piece for the performing arts that would faithfully narrate the reality of assisted suicide.
“I’ve never seen a piece of art of theatre which expresses opposition to legalizing assisted suicide from a disabled person’s perspective – so I decided to try to rectify that,” Carr wrote in an article for the Guardian.
Read more at Catholic News Agency.
