American actress Katy Sullivan said it was “an incredible thing” to make her London stage debut seven years after coming to the capital to compete at the 2012 Paralympics.
Sullivan, a sprinter who set an American record when she ran the 100 metres at the games, is a double amputee and plays a wheelchair-bound quadriplegic in Cost Of Living.
She said: “This entire experience has just been incredible. Feeling so welcomed by this entire city and this community and this theatre in general — and what a fun audience.”
Another of her co-stars, Jack Hunter, has cerebral palsy and plays a character with the condition.
But Sullivan insisted the show was not about teaching the audience about disability. She said: “Diversity is incredibly important. I think if you’re trying to tell an authentic story, playing at something is very different than having people who have a specific life experience.
“But there are no teachable moments; it’s behaviour and relationships and that’s why this play has been as successful as it’s been and as powerful as it is because they’re all three-dimensional characters.”
Sullivan’s co-star Adrian Lester plays her estranged husband, who comes back to care for her. He said the show “would not have worked this well” with able-bodied actors and that he had learned from them.
He added: “Jack was educating us and Katy did the same thing. They showed us a point of view based on their own experience that we would otherwise not have known.”
