Hamish
It's 1981. Hamish's parents have been fundraising to buy him a new wheelchair. Crucially, it is a self-operated vehicle and a chance for independence. Pushed everywhere by carers before this, Hamish heads for the woods to find sexual pleasure. But he hasn't counted on such rough terrain.
Jack Thorne's short monologue play Hamish was commissioned by the BBC as part of CripTales, broadcast on BBC Four and BBC America in 2020 to mark the twenty-fifth anniversary of the UK's Disability Discrimination Act, which criminalised discrimination against disabled people in many areas of life. The production had disabled people at its core – as writers, directors and actors of all six monologues.
Hamish was performed by Robert Softley Gale, directed by Amit Sharma.
It is published in the volume Criptales: Six Monologues.