JOSHUA (AND ME) - AT THE TOWN AND GOWN
What is it like to be the sibling of someone with autism? It is a question perhaps rarely asked. This is why writer/actor Rachel Hammond’s play is so fresh, challenging, deeply personal and yet immensely uplifting. Rachel, a graduate of stage school, was searching for a piece that felt close to her. She grew up with an autistic older brother and wondered if anything had been written about the experience. She could find none. So, she decided to pen her own and the result is a beautiful, deeply personal piece of theatre. The solo show now on tour, barely disguises that what we see on stage is what she got as the sister of ‘Josh’ the lad with a neurodivergent brain and another older brother ‘Ben’.
We first encounter Hannah, aka Rachel, as a seven year-old living with mum and her two brothers. Hammond’s ability to switch seamlessly between Joshua, Ben, mum and a doting granddad, was impressive. The story is told on a simple but intriguing set. Three primary coloured performance circles, a keyboard, a guitar, some giant Lego bricks and a loop machine. We see Hannah coping with the necessary rituals of living with an autistic brother: the things that can never be done: holidays, music or hugs without permission. These rules are uttered repeated like mantras as the talented performer sings into a mic attached to the foot-controlled loop. The effect is a series of endlessly repeated inner thoughts around what to do, or not to do, with brother Josh. Mum is portrayed as stressed but lovingly doing her best to provide Josh with the daily routines he needs to make his world a safe one – to be left alone with his train set, never to be called ‘Josh’, not to be touched without permission. Hammond, a bright, breezy presence takes us through her childhood into adolescence and young adulthood. Though living with an autistic brother is the surface theme, this was really a touching, funny and honest family story.
Hammond impersonates her brother, mother and grandfather with aplomb. She races between character, setting up the sound loops and playing a variety of instruments. She doesn’t quite pull off the segue from child to teeny to undergrad at Cambridge. Her character seems to stay childlike. But that is a small issue and takes nothing away from the touching tale of the musical lass from Blackpool full of love for her brother but taking on the chin that her needs are often overlooked. The self realisation at the end - the pull between her own life and that of her much adored Josh; the pressures of the young carer. It was very moving and there were a few tears in my eyes at the end. I came away with a better understanding of the challenges and delights of being a sibling to an autistic child and a desire to know more.
