We ask these questions of everybody
'Astonishing: elegant, enraging, restlessly inventive' The I ★★★★★
’Staggering urgency and grace’ Theatre Weekly ★★★★
The Stage ★★★★
A Younger Theatre ★★★★
The UpComing ★★★★
Find a disabled community, they will save your life.
They will teach you many things.
How to survive in a world that’s not made for you.
Hannah needs help. She meets Lynn. Lynn works the Department of Work and Pensions. An assessment takes place...and then something else.
This is an encounter between two women, an audience, and a riotous chorus of disabled voices. We Ask These Questions of Everybody transforms a benefits interview into opera, and shares radical and surprising disabled perspectives on society and on ourselves. A 50 minute digital operatic event sharing disabled people’s experiences under austerity in the UK, performed by an exceptional cross-genre, all-disabled ensemble.
A soundfestival commission supported by Help Musicians, Mahogany Opera Group, Ignite Ticket Fund and Creative Scotland.
behind the scenes
with Amble and Toria, on the Mahogany Opera blog.
with Amble, on the Sound and Music podcast.
Past Dates & Venues
DaDaFest International
31 October - 18 December 2022
Together! Disability History Month Festival
25 November 2021. Catch up until 9 December 2021
Soundfestival
29 January 2021, catch up until 28 February 2021
This work is fully captioned and includes integrated audio description.
It includes some difficult subjects in disabled people's lives. Please click here if you would like to read a list of content warnings.
cast & creative TEAM
Victoria Oruwari - Lynn
Steph West - Hannah, harp
Clarence Adoo - sampler
Sonia Allori - clarinet
Amble Skuse - composer, electronics
Toria Banks - writer, director
Laura Spark - video & captions
Libby Welsh - Design Intern
Joe Strickland - Digital Producer
Dylan Howells - Web Developer
Nat Henderson - Marketing Design
Dina Rider & Sandra-Mae Lux - Personal Assistants & Tech Support to Ms Oruwari
Eluned Charnley & Karen Pritchard - Rehearsal Live Captioning & Audio Description
Victoria Oruwari
Steph West
Clarence Adoo
Sonia Allori
Amble Skuse
Toria Banks
Laura Spark
Libby Welsh
Joe Strickland
Dylan Howells
Nat Henderson
Dina Rider & Sandra-Mae Lux
Eluned Charnley & Karen Pritchard
with thanks to
‘Hannah’, who let us use her story, her words, and her transcript.
All of the interviewees, who spoke to us, and who allowed us to use their words.
Antti Saario
Roberta Mock
Hannah and Jack, for providing a calm sonic space for Steph to work in.
Sound and Music
and Sound Festival, Creative Scotland, Ignite Ticket Fund, Help Musicians, and Ally and Freddie at Mahogany Opera for supporting this project.