D.A.R.E

Synopsis

D.A.R.E is a play of real anger, a direct fight against prejudice as well as a means of educating and encouraging audience members to look again at the issues involved.  It is loosely based on the story of Jason and the Argonauts and reveals the experiences of four individuals (Acastus, Heracles, Hylas and Argos) who use the trappings of modern technology to create an agitation group, D.A.R.E., the Disabled Anarchist Revolutionary Enclave.  D.A.R.E is committed to direct action against those who would suppress the voices of disabled people. The central theme of the play is the development of a eugenics movement; the group is devoted to organised attacks on institutions associated with genetic cleansing.  The play takes the audience back to the extermination of disabled people at the Nazi concentration camps and then moves forward to the enforced sterilisation, the cruel taunts of children and the refusal to give a heart transplant to a girl with Down's Syndrome. As the critic in The List says, "D.A.R.E. is angry, raw and about as comforting as a steel wool cardie but it's invigorating to see something deliberately provocative amongst all the inoffensive whimsy of the fringe"