OTHERING Comes to Sydney Festival Next Month

Little Big Woman Productions will premiere Debra Keenahan's provocative one-woman performance, Othering from 13th to 15th January at Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre as part of the 2023 Sydney Festival.

Co-written, produced and performed by artist, writer, and psychologist Debra Keenahan (Little Things Matter, #Belittled, Awkward Conversations), Othering is a powerful new work that encourages audiences to reflect on the casual ill treatment of people with dwarfism and in turn, those who are perceived as 'outside the norm'. This multidisciplinary work aims to change visual perspective and point of view, so audience may experience the panopticon of disability - me seeing you, seeing me.

Inspired by Keenahan's lived experience as a woman with achondroplasia dwarfism, Othering reverses and inverts the gaze of the audience, revealing the world through the eyes of the performer to reveal an uncomfortable truth; if you look different, you stand out from the crowd - but that's not always a good thing. Sometimes, it is deadly.

Othering addresses the physical, social, and personal dimensions of personhood to examine the subject of "being different" as an insider. By emphasising the reactions, attitudes, and behaviours of the broader society in the construction of difference and disability, Othering encourages audiences to reflect upon how we use words and actions to other those who are perceived differently.

Debra Keenahan is a multi-disciplinary artist, advocate, author and psychologist whose work explores how society dehumanises those with a disability. Her work has been shown at the Cannes Short Film Festival, AGNSW, ACMI, UNSW Galleries and was a finalist in the Focus on Ability Short Film Festival. Debra has been the recipient of numerous grants from the Australia Council for the Arts, Create NSW and ArtScreen; and has acted as a consultant on disability access to the National Gallery of Australia, and NAVA (National Association of Visual Artists).

Keenahan insists it is people's attitude to her dwarfism that is her true disability. She believes in art as a powerful tool to communicate complex concepts more readily, using her work with the intent to instigate social change and empathy. Keenahan reflects,

"'Othering' is about people who are considered less-than-human and as such, can be treated with disrespect, callous disregard, or even abuse and violence. For some, this attitude has become so pervasive as to be unquestioned, even somewhat "acceptable" to the public. When all these people want to do is live their lives - like everyone else".

In this immersive performance, Othering prompts viewers to question, when the world says you're no one, how do you show you are someone?

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