Intersectionality and Geopathic Place in Disability Dramaturgy: A Case of ‘All of Us’ by Francesca Martinez (2022)

The aim of this article is to investigate the influence of intersectional politics of recent disability drama on the conceptualization of place. My point of departure is Una Chaudhuri’s concept of geopathic place and its discussion within the context of dramaturgy of disability by Victoria Ann Lewis. In her Staging Place: The Geography of Modern Drama, Una Chaudhuri claims that ‘the geopathic paradigm underlying realist drama … supports a certain construction of identity: identity as a negotiation with – and on occasion a heroic overcoming of – the power of place’ (1997, p. 56). Victoria Ann Lewis in her 2004 article argues that artists with disabilities often ‘re-code’ identity and place as well as ‘disrupt the liberal dichotomies of individual freedom vs. confinement/prison and the related hierarchical oppositions of movement over stasis, and time over place.’ In my discussion of All of Us by Francesca Martinez, I will focus on very recent redefinitions of these oppositions and dichotomies enabled by intersectional constructions of characters and spaces. I will also trace how in exploring the relation between these two categories and human embodiment, All of Us promotes the notions of human variety and shared humanity, which prevent potential stigmatizations of characters with disabilities.