The play entitled “Unspoken – a play about a man and his stuttering” by Neil Rathmell was written in collaboration with dr Trudy Stewart (speech therapist, author of numerous publications on stuttering) to reflect the experiences of an ordinary person with stuttering. The author attended meetings of a self-help group based in Leeds (UK). Its members became involved in the process of preparing the play and were consultants to the actors performing in the play. The play was directed by dr Trudy Stewart. The actors are members of the Arts Centre amateur theatre group from Leeds.
As the experiences of the play’s protagonist (based on the experiences of many people with stuttering) should not go unmentioned, the screening will be followed by a discussion with invited guests – people with stuttering, parents of children with stuttering, therapists. It will focus on the issue of changing attitudes towards stuttering – what can we do as interlocutors to make people with stuttering grow up feeling that they are allowed to stutter, that stuttering is an equally valuable way of communicating, that they are not inferior/weaker than others just because there are signs of fluency in their speech? How do we make stuttering accepted and understood and make those experiencing it feel comfortable in society?
