As the global theatre community prepares to celebrate World Theatre Day on Friday 27 March, we are reflecting on our work and how VX Labs, our pioneering research programme, are driving new approaches to accessibility, storytelling and artistic leadership across UK theatre.

Through these labs we are demonstrating how disabled-led practice can reshape how theatre is made, placing access, collaboration and lived experience at the centre of the creative process.

Across the programme to date, four labs have examined different aspects of disabled-led theatre. The findings generated throughout 2025 are now influencing both the company’s artistic direction and productions, while also offering guidance and learnings for the wider sector with findings and recommendations from each of the labs available for artists and organisation’s to use via our website.

VX Labs Insights and Outcomes

Our first lab explored creative captioning, focusing on bilingual captions for plays written in or incorporating two languages: the team explore three plays, in three South Asian languages, namely Hindi (Dial 1 For UK by Mohit Mathur), Punjabi (The Pride of Punjab by Gavi Singh Chera) and Urdu (10 Nights by Shahid Iqbal Khan). Delivered in collaboration with Attenborough Arts Centre and Phizzical Productions, creative captioner Ben Glover and translator Diljohn Singh, the Lab revealed how captions can become an artistic tool rather than simply an accessibility feature. By embedding captioning into the writing process, rehearsals and design from the start, the research found that captions can enrich storytelling that enhances the overall theatre experience and engagement while benefiting d/Deaf audiences, multilingual communities and younger audiences increasingly accustomed to subtitles.

Another lab, developed with Z-arts in Manchester, explored theatre for children and young people. Bringing disabled artists together with young participants, the research showed that when children are an integral part of the creative process, accessible theatre becomes more imaginative, playful and ambitious. Building on these findings, a practical toolkit is now being commissioned, led by theatre director Nickie Miles-Wildin of TwoCan Inclusive Theatre Company, and Sarah Emmott, Creative Director of Art with Heart, to help artists and venues develop and inform commissioning processes for accessible theatre for young audiences.

The third lab, delivered with Bristol Old Vic, explored Decolonising Disability, examined how disabled artists from the Global Majority can bring their full identities into their creative work. The findings highlighted how many artists experience “double exclusion” and called for systemic change across the industry to build genuinely inclusive creative environments. Out of the residency, artists formed a new collective, Aggressively Civil, which continues to support its members.

The programme’s newest research, working with Sheffield Theatres, explored a groundbreaking question: what would a playscript look like if it were conceived entirely in British Sign Language? Rather than translating from written English, this Deaf-led lab invited artists including Rinkoo Barpaga, Zoë McWhinney, Daryl Jackson and Colly Metcalfe to experiment with visual and spatial forms of authorship, from signing and choreography to drawing and film. With findings due to be shared with the sector later this year, the ambition is to build towards the commissioning of our first theatre production originated entirely in BSL.

We have already begun putting this learning into practice through the development of two recent R&D projects.

“World Theatre Day feels like a good moment to say that this work has to be more than rhetoric. If we’re serious about broadening who theatre is for, and who gets to shape it, then that learning has to be embedded in the work we make. At Vital Xposure, we’re trying to put our money where our mouth is by taking what’s come out of our Labs and applying it directly to the work we’re developing now, including When I See Blue and Chouette. What’s become clear to us is that access and disabled leadership don’t limit the artform – they open up richer possibilities for what theatre can be.”

Josh Elliott, VX Artistic Director

When I See Blue is a new stage adaptation of the acclaimed book by award-winning author Lily Bailey, adapted by Josh Elliott and with dramaturgy by Lu Kemp. The team recently held a creative R&D exploring the world and theatrical language of this sharp, funny and deeply moving story about a neurodivergent boy navigating OCD, friendship and belonging.

Chouette, based on Claire Oshetsky’s acclaimed novel, is written by playwright Madeleine Farnhill. Supported through R&D by Sheffield Theatres and Bristol Old Vic, the project is a feminist poetic fable about motherhood, disability and the pressure to “fix” non-conforming children – an unsettling, inclusive and defiantly beautiful exploration of transformation that continues our commitment to radical, risk-taking storytelling.

Vital Xposure Vision for the Future of Theatre

Our unique disabled-led methodology brings into focus something often overlooked in the creative process: the journey of the artist, particularly playwrights. Through its research and collaborations, the company is committed to supporting how artists work. Rather than focusing solely on the end result, we prioritiss a creative process rooted in reflection, respect and experimentation, creating space for artists to explore, take risks and learn, without pressure to deliver a finished outcome at every stage, a process that ultimately leads to more considered, ambitious and high-quality work.

This work offers a compelling vision of our future as a new writing company, one where the stage is expanded to include new voices, new languages and new ways of telling stories.

Our message behind this year’s World Theatre Day is clear: access, diversity and artistic excellence are not separate ambitions. they are deeply connected. Through research, artist development and new writing, the company is helping build a future where disabled artists lead the creation of new theatrical forms and where access is recognised as a powerful creative force.

 

Photo featuring artists at the VX Lab: Creating A Playscript in BSL:  Zoë McWhinney and Rinkoo Barpaga (front), Mary-Jayne Russell de Clifford (back). Photo by Charlie Swinbourne.