Cripping Solidarity in Contemporary Feminist Disability Theatre: Lovingly, Joyfully, Radically

This article sits at the intersection of feminist disability studies, crip theory and theatre and performance studies and utilises an interdisciplinary framework to advance the concept of “cripping solidarity”, moving beyond empathy-based models of solidarity to one based on shared vulnerability and bodily variation. It engages critically with a wide range of disability discourses (medical, social, political/relational and variation paradigms) and contextualises them with reference to two disability performances written and performed by women. This article argues for the cripping solidarities generated through the experience of disability performance by analysing the feminist disability pieces Reasons Why You Should(n’t) Love Me (2021) by Amy Trigg and To Rose on Her 18th Birthday (2024) by A. C. Smith. The former is a one-woman play about the playwright’s lived experience of spina bifida told through the fictional character Juno and performed by Trigg. The latter is a solo multimedia performance on the fear of passing cancer genetically to one’s children and the potential of embracing joy, delivered through video shown on stage as part of The Acts, an anthology of four pieces by disabled artists curated by CRIPtic Arts. Both shows display bodily variance and common vulnerability, inviting a sense of solidaristic “crippedness”.