Smashing outdated disability caricatures
Posted on: Sun 2 Dec 2018
Storytellers and content creators usually stray away from hiring disabled actors, but thanks to Screen Australia and ABC’s Fresh Bloods Initiative, we finally get to see a lead comedic actor with a physical disability smashing those outdated, stereotypical caricatures depicted on other television programs and films.
Although most wouldn’t have expected the north-west NSW regional city of Bathurst to serve as a backdrop for party-raving, drunken shenanigans.
The Angus Project was co-created and produced by Charles Sturt University alumnus, Angus Thompson (a young actor with cerebral palsy) and Nina Oyama (comedian, writer and actor who has appeared in Utopia and Tonightly with Tom Ballard). It is about Angus, who has dropped out of uni and now writes back-page sports articles for the Bathurst Gazette without getting paid and Nina who is both his best friend and carer.
Thompson and Oyama both chatted with De-Stigmatised‘s Jarad about how this semi-biographical show was created and devised, while also spilling some behind the scenes gossip. They also explain why Australian media production companies need to invest more and hire disabled actors, performers and producers with a multifaceted skill in diverse storytelling and casting.
You can watch all three webisodes and the thirty-minute pilot episode of The Angus Project on ABC iView and on ABC Comedy on Tuesday, December 4th 2018.
Produced by: Jarad McLoughlin
Photo supplied and used with permission from Nina Oyama
