Toilet Paper Diaries is a play written and performed by Porcelain Delaney. It follows thirty-year-old Eloise on a pivotal day, waiting anxiously in a room, unsure how to process the enormity of what lies ahead. As she delves into her childhood diaries, we meet a joyful nine-year-old Eloise, a promising ballerina certain of her future stardom—until the onset of her periods derails her dreams. Suddenly thrust into a battle with dismissive doctors, Eloise refuses to be silenced, fighting to be heard. This sometimes heartbreaking yet humour-filled play is visually evocative and will deeply resonate with those who have experienced endometriosis or similar conditions.

Contains strong language and mild sexual references.

Yellow is a joyous, uplifting piece of theatre written by Jody O’Neill, writer of the award-winning ‘What I (Don’t) Know About Autism’. It follows the story of Lizzie, a creature of habit. It looks at how her life is changed forever when she sleeps through her alarm clock, and has to break her routine with very unexpected consequences.

The performance will be followed by a discussion with performer Eleanor Walsh and director Al Bellamy, on inclusion, disability, and diversity, designed in collaboration with Sinéad Dunne Finnegan.

It Flows With No Electrics is a collaboration project showcase between Brain Injury Matters and SARC: Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Sound and Music. The work is a rumination on the theme of ‘pause’ and its capacity to transform. The performance combines conversations, poetry, free-writing, and sonic illustrations in a series of audio visual compositions and improvisations. Verbal and visual signs and signals are translated into sonic atmospheres in the world-renowned immersive audio theatre Sonic Lab.

Through the Virtual Looking Glass is an inclusive ensemble featuring musicians from Drake Music Northern Ireland, Brain Injury Matters, and QUBe, the resident music ensemble based at SARC: Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Sound and Music. Together they will present luminous improvisations with new accessible virtual reality instruments created for this work.

These performances are made possible by support from Performance without Barriers, Drake Music NI, SARC: Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Sound and Music, Queen’s University Belfast, and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.

Open Arts runs 3 visual art groups. Join us to celebrate their exhibition, Class Creations! The exhibition will feature work in wood, clay and textiles. You will have the chance to chat with our participants while taking part in some of their favourite art activities.

I Didn’t See You There is shot entirely from director Reid Davenport‘s physical perspective—mounted to his wheelchair or handheld—and serves as an unequivocal rebuke to the norm of disabled people being seen and not heard. 

The film is personal and unflinching. Viewers will be immersed in a sense of the world from the film maker’s perspective. Reid offers a perspective and a stylistic approach that are rarely seen, and brings an urgently needed storytelling eye to filmmaking. This documentary is powerful and emotional, thoughtful and raw, intimate and political.

Film and Serving the Story

Joe McStravick’s seminar will explore storytelling through film. It will give an insight into the production of his first feature film, Unspoken, in which a young non-speaking autistic woman must overcome her learned helplessness to escape her captor. Joe is an award-winning film and TV director, producer and screenwriter.

Exploring the Intersection of Artificial Intelligence and Disability Representation in the Arts

Catherine Bourne will explore the intersection of art and technology, and how artificial intelligence and disability representation shapes perceptions, narratives, and cultural understanding. Catherine is an Australian artist, researcher and educator based in County Leitrim.

This event is part of Digital Horizon funded by the Santander Foundation. This series at University of Atypical explores how technology can inform, shape and elevate the arts and disability sector.