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Puppet to play autistic child in stage play

If you need an example of what I think about it: I was watching the video until about halfway when the puppet comes in... and I couldn't watch anymore.

What really pisses me off - and only makes the divide and disconnect worse - is that this is clearly angled for NT's to empathize with these pooooor parents (<-note my use of sarcasm) who have a puppet (excuse me; "autistic son"; same difference, apparently) for a child.

While I'm sure there have got to be redeeming qualities in the story, the angle on this and the puppet as the child is a non-starter. It defeats itself and its purpose before even beginning.

If they wanted to have the audience understand the autistic perspective, the child would be the only human and everyone else would be puppets that have mystifying behaviors.

I'm also allergic to NT's that pose as "caring" when they do nothing to actually UNDERSTAND the autistic perspective. Mistakes like this would not occur otherwise. When I see NT's throwing around "autism" and "disability" and they're attached to a play with an autistic doll, its like all they're doing is virtue signalling. Which makes me want to vomit a little.

Whew. I don't get offended easily, either. I'm usually quite stoic. Off I go. :weary:
 
JDShredds said:
If they wanted to have the audience understand the autistic perspective, the child would be the only human and everyone else would be puppets that have mystifying behaviors.
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If there were an "Autismforums.com award for quote of the day" you, Sir, would have just won it I think :)

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Autistamatic said:
Indeed. I think many fear it will deepen the "uncanny valley" in which we find ourselves, which clearly is not the intention of the playwright.
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Indeed.

I probably should explain "Verfremdungseffekt" - it means "alienation affect" and is a theatrical technique pioneered by playwright Bertolt Brecht, who wanted his audience to remain alienated and emotionally detached from the lead character, supposedly in order that the audience should judge the characters objectively. Introducing a puppet character would likely create a Verfremdungseffekt, but in the case of this play, it's just going to cause the audience to identify with the parents, but prevent them from having any understanding or connection with the central character of the autistic boy.

I don't see how the puppet is going to 'give life and character that you wouldn't achieve with a human actor" or how she is going to "explore the characterisation of Lawrence in a way that doesn't feel insensitive" The whole thing is just a bad idea on many levels - obviously she wasn't thinking of the reactions of autistic people when she said this.
 
I find their whole characterization of this child to be patronizing, ignorant, and purposely dehumanizing. It enhances stigma, paints the parents as worthy of understanding without extending the same respect to a child who is about to be traumatized. Whatever their intentions may be, this is just perpetuates a brutal stereotype that we aren't fully people. How many human beings have suffered, endured abusive "treatments", or have been hospitalized or institutionalized due to this erroneous perception?

I question the empathy and humanity of the individuals who have produced this absolutely abhorrent atrocity.
 
LOL IT LOOKS SO RIDICULOUS WHY IS HE PURPLE

It all came off as a parody to me. The way they really drive in the point of it being "real" while using a puppet makes it seem like satire.

It should have had a fake "Funded by Autism Speaks" thing at the end.

Surely it won't do well and/or receive a lot of backlash and then be gone and used as a reference in the future for that one time those people did that one dumb thing that we need to make sure not to do now.
 
I have to wonder,
If Lawrence is to be shipped off and cared for by those that have training and experience in looking after boys like Lawrence,

Why the parents couldn’t go out and get the same training and experience ?

I imagine the knowledge is available to anyone who wants it?
 
Definitely a strange choice. o_O

When I saw the title of this thread, the first thought that came to mind was that perhaps it was going to be a metaphor for how the child feels. To illustrate a frustration with adults always controlling them, so they feel like a puppet...being tugged in different directions because due to their disability the child is not trusted to make their own decisions.

I wasn't expecting this. Personally, I think I prefer what I assumed it was going to be. A story about an autistic child fighting for the respect of adults, trying to gain independence but also coming to terms with their difficulties and seeking help when they need it. I think that the puppet idea could work in such a concept, there could be a stand alone scene where adults are yelling and the child gets overwhelmed and frustrated.

The child then drops to their knees and strings appear. Perspective looks up at the adults, who are now dressed as puppet masters, leaning over them. As the child cries out in a shaky voice, the adults are shown once again in their regular clothing. The story would keep cutting between the child's imagination and reality to convey how they feel. Perhaps that's a little cliche' though. :oops:

I think the puppet idea in that context would make more sense than whatever this is. Although I also like the concept put forward by @JDShredds. :)
 
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Dias said:
Dehumanizing the child and making it a puppet makes it easier for the people to agree with the idea that the child should be put into care
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That was my thought. By portraying the autistic child as a puppet, he(?) appears to be less than the others. Less capable, less human, less valuable, ... some or all of those, but definitely less.

I would love it if, at the end, the autistic child makes an impassioned speech about how they seem him as less. The other characters realize how they’ve been seeing him, and suddenly the puppet is replaced with a real actor.
 
...so I watched the video. And I guess the problem I have with it is the same problem I have with all other portrayals of autism in the media. It’s that a single character is held forth as if to say, “This is Autism.” A single sample is given and no one acknowledges that it is a broad spectrum - and not even a linear spectrum, but a multi-dimensional one.

Someone please tell me that there is some media out there that shows that the autism spectrum has breadth, depth, and width.
 
Gracey said:
I have to wonder,
If Lawrence is to be shipped off and cared for by those that have training and experience in looking after boys like Lawrence,

Why the parents couldn’t go out and get the same training and experience ?

I imagine the knowledge is available to anyone who wants it?
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He's a puppet - quite easy to deal with.

Put him in a box.
 
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Fridgemagnetman said:
He's a puppet - quite easy to deal with.

Put him in a box.
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Writing as a parent, the thought of what’s happening to Lawrence is hitting me right in the ‘feels’

Yes I know it’s only a play.
It’s just so sad to think it happens in real life.
I guess that comes down to my own ideas of what I believe parents ought to do for their children.
 
As an update to this story, excerpts from the script have been dug up which refer to the autistic boy as "like a puppy" because he "jumps up and down whenever he sees you" and "[defecates] wherever he wants to."
The development model used in rehearsal of the play which was eventually replaced has also emerged, which is quite literally like something out of a horror movie...

puppetnun.png


morepuppet.png
 
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Appalling...that first puppet is hate speech in visual form.

Just imagine if people were allowed to do this sort of thing to a character from another minority group, taking all the worst misunderstandings and dehumanizing stereotypes about people from that group and running with or exaggerating them in a completely serious and non-satirical way.

We are not monsters.

And even our most difficult-to-understand behaviors can be found in other non-autistic humans. People are just too busy othering us to think about it.

Everyone involved in that play should be ashamed of what they're doing.
 
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I also feel bad for anyone who was cared for by the playwright when he worked with disabled people, and hope he is not involved in such roles anymore.

And if it's the production company that's messing up his play and doing horrible things he would never have done, he should be speaking out publicly about that fact and disowning the play -- making it clear it's no longer up to him.

Anyone in a caregiving role for someone else has a responsibility to advocate for them and their best interests. If this is his idea of advocacy he has no business trying to be an advocate.
 
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