Spasticus Autisticus

It was this story by Nick Sommerlad in the Mirror that really got us going. Back in February 2011 we'd vaguely heard about Atos, but reading about George's untimely death from a heart attack got us wondering. Amelia Gentleman's fine articles in the Guardian fuelled the fire, which was further fanned by the discovery that Atos was sponsoring the Paralympics. What finally set us ablaze was the discovery that Atos had threatened law suits against carers and disabled people who dared to complain about their inhumane treatment. So we decided to write a play. One that would be drawn from real life stories, that could be used by ordinary people where they are to raise awareness about the work Atos does. We decided to aim for a Spring launch with the hope it could be used in time for the beginning of the Paralympics.

Back then, not many people were talking about Atos. Except for the journalists noted above (who deserve great credit for spreading the word so widely and continuing to do so), the main voices were from campaign groups like Black Triangle and DPAC and bloggers like Sue Marsh, Kaliya Franklin, David Gillon. But when we put our messages out on twitter and Facebook, slowly but surely, the stories came in. Stories that enraged us, infuriated us and made us want to create a piece of drama that would truly reflect the experience and get the world angry too. We decided to set our play against the backdrop of the history of welfare, from the post war consensus, through Thatcherism and to the modern day. With Ian Dury as our guide, Jo/e Bloggs has his/her eyes opened to the Atos experience. Assessors hide behind computers, claimants are forced to run a Paralympics fit to work race, appeals are on a conveyorbelt. The play ends with claimants turning the tables on Atos, The DWP and Ministers by calling them to account. We've used familiar tunes with new words to enliven the action, with Spasticus Autisticus naturally taking centre stage.

As we wrote, we realised some of the stories needed more time than this drama could provide. We also thought it might be ambitious for many to do a visual and physical play. So we created the Atos Monologues, which can be read by anyone anywhere, in a theatre, on the streets, at a festival. And for good measure we realised that some of the key scenes in Atos Stories would work as Street Theatre.  By May we were ready to launch to the world. We're pleased to say with very positive results. As we write, Act Up in Newham are working on the play, and we hope a group is forming in Oxford. DPAC and Our Olympics hoped to use the Monologues for their Counter Olympics protest on the 28th July but police cut the demo short. We did perform the Monologues at Greenbelt last week, and we understand Leeds DPAC used some at their demo on Tuesday, and Cardiff DPAC used some in their literature.

In the meantime, the tiny group of voices that started with a whisper has been joined by more and more people. As the year has gone on, we have seen a babble become a shout, with the launch of the Spartacus Report waking the media up to the dangers of welfare reform. The focus on dodgy sponsors during the Olympics put Atos in the spotlight, further enhanced by the Dispatches and Panorama double whammy on the 31st July. Suddenly everyone was talking about Atos, just in time for DPAC's Atos Games which launched on Monday. Yesterday that shout became a huge roar, as the story of the Opening Ceremony was Atos sponsoring the games at a time when it is stripping disabled people of benefits. It was front page  news on the Independent. All day long twitter and Facebook were full of it. And then came the ceremony itself. A beautiful collision of art and science, where disability was peripheral, disability rights, central. As many of us fumed at the Atos lanyards athletes were wearing, the GB team entered with tracksuits zipped up. Not a lanyard in sight. Deliberate? It has to be doesn't it?

As for the rest of the ceremony, Jenny Sealey and David Hemmings deserve gold for cutting through the bullshit (disabled people are heroes, scroungers or to be pitied) with a dazzling display of excellence. The culmination being a fabulous rendition of Spasticus Autisticus whilst performers waved rights banners in the background a message to "normal land" that disabled people just ain't going to take it lying down. With the glass ceiling being broken, under a replica of the beautiful Alison Lappa statue, and the whole stadium roaring "I am what I am", the message was loud and clear. Let disabled people BE.

In all the enthusiasm, we wondered last night whether Atos Stories is still necessary. After all Sealey and Hemmings have given the world the message we want it to hear. But sadly, we know there is more work to be done. On Newsnight last night, we gather Maria Miller resisted all evidence about Atos to suggest that WCA assessments liberate disabled people. Atos have been awarded 3/4 of the contracts to undertake DLA to PIP assessments. 500,000 people will face losing their DLA from 2013. Many of them were performing last night, or will be taking part in the games, able to do so because DLA helps them maintain their independence. And even if Atos were to lose their contract tomorrow, we are facing the most disablist government ever. We need to stop them in their tracks now.

If you care about this, if you want to get involved, there's plenty to do. The Atos Games continue today with armchair activism and tomorrow with a closing ceremony at Atos. Next Tuesday, Tom Greatrex MP is leading a debate on Atos in Parliament, which we sincerely hope is the start of Labour's path to rehabilitation, having committed the grievous offence of starting Atos assessments in the first place. And of course, you can put on our plays Atos Stories, The Atos Monologues or Street Theatre any time, any where.

Finally, please do celebrate the Paralympians, they've worked hard, they deserve our support.  But every time they succeed, do use this hashtag #DidDLAhelp. Cos you know what? We bet it probably did.

As Kaliya Franklin says (and has kindly let us use for our play) - "Alone we whisper, together we shout". Let's shout the house down.

Atos Stories at Greenbelt

Way back in March, when Atos Stories was still in production, I knew I'd be at the Greenbelt festival later in the year. So we sent in an application to put on Atos Stories from scratch, the idea being to invite disabled and nondisabled people to get involved. This was rather an ambitious idea, and I have to say I was a bit relieved we were turned down. But, I still wanted Atos Stories to be there in some way.  As the year rolled on, we developed the Atos Monologues which is shorter and simpler to stage. When I discovered recently Greenbelt was having an open mic session, I jumped at the chance. And I was delighted that my thirteen year old daughter decided to join me after she watched the Dispatches/Panorama programme.

We were both a tad nervous beforehand. As I mentioned before I'm not an actor, and this was her first time speaking in public outside of school. But we needn't have worried. The lovely volunteers at the Roots Stage were warm and encouraging, we drummed up a large enough audience from twitter and posters round the site, and once we were up, we soon got in the flow. And it was a really useful exercise to see which bits worked well, and which need further editing.

We used 11 of the monologues, which intersperse the rhetoric of ministers, DWP, and Atos with the real accounts of people's experience of Atos. They build up story by story to culminate with the fact that 1,100 people died between January and August last year, after being placed in the WRAG. We ended with one story, well known to disabled campaigners. Karen Sherlock, who wrote to  us as Pusscat01, died in June 2012, two weeks after she finally won her fight to be placed in the support group. We are extremely grateful to Nigel, Karen's husband, for giving us permission to do this, and to Kaliya Franklin for allowing us to quote from emails Karen sent. It made for a powerful ending, which didn't just reduce some of the audience to tears, but me as well. Which is as it should be. If these stories don't make us weep - we're lost.

Greenbelt was a great platform to talk about Atos and to advertise the DPAC Atos Games (which also got a plug at the panel on welfare, where Sue Marsh spoke). And I was pleased to see there is growing awareness of what is happening with welfare, which means the campaign is building. It was also marvellous to hook up with Sue and Steve Sumpter on Saturday after a years worth of discussions by twitter. Thanks also to Steve for taking pictures of our first ever performance. A special thanks to my wonderful husband and children for their support, and particularly, my lovely thirteen year old who was amazing.

So there you go. It's as easy as that to put on the Atos Monologues. Anyone can do it anywhere. We are working on a revised version but please do feel free to download the current one here. We also have street theatre for use at protests, and for the more ambitious, a full length play, Atos Stories.

I opened yesterday by saying this week sees the launch of the Paralympics, sponsored by our friends at Atos. In response, Disabled People Against Cuts are coordinating the Atos Games up and down the country, with a Closing Ceremony at Atos on Friday. There's more information here

Also coming up soon,  Tom Greatrex, MP, has tabled a debate on Atos at the House of Commons for the 4th September. So why not write to your MP and ask them to support the motion?

A personal post from one of the collective

It's not over yet...

The Olympics may have finished, but the Paralympics are coming...

If like us, you are furious that Atos is a sponsor and organises logistics, there is plenty you can do.

From 27th-31st August DPAC have organised a week of action against Atos to coincide with the start of the Games. You can find more details here.

Atos Stories will be at Greenbelt Festival that weekend and hope to get a slot at the Open Mic to read from the Atos Monologues.

And ANYONE of you can download our plays for free. You can read from the Monologues, do a bit of Street Theatre (including a Paralympics Fit to Work Race) or get in touch about putting on Atos Stories. Let us know if you do it and send us photos we'll put them up...

It's time we all acted against Atos.

Please join us!

Jump up!

So, today, I was in London for my uncle's funeral. Up until the last minute, I wasn't sure if I was going, or how I'd get there, but looking at the hotspots expected on the roads, last night I decided to take public transport. It was one of those last minute choices that sometimes create unexpected opportunities. Naturally enough, signs of the Olympics were everywhere, bringing with them the pleasure/pain that I've been experiencing for the last six months.  I'm passionate about athletics and I love the sport, but I've been increasingly downhearted by all the rubbish accompanying the games, too much security, too many awful sponsors, suppression of free speech. On the up side in London, it was good to see cheery volunteer Olympics ambassadors, pointing tourists in the right direction, making me feel glad to be a Londoner by birth. On the downside, a woman wearing an Atos badge, presumably on her way to Olympics HQ. "Bloody Atos,"I growled inwardly, as I headed to the tube, where I made another last minute decision which would change my day

Alerted by my sister that a train to Romford would be quicker than going to Hornchurch by tube, I decided to head to Liverpool Street. I had my laptop with me, and as I got on the train, I found myself opening up the Atos Monologues instead of the piece I was working on. Next time I looked up, we were at Stratford, and blow me, there was the Olympic Stadium to my left. Perhaps I was being sent a message. I looked down at my laptop, I looked up at the train. Perhaps I should do an impromptu reading? Trouble is, I'm a writer, not an actor, I wasn't  sure I could do justice to Karen and Kate, and all the other fabulous people who wrote to us. The train moved off, the moment passed, and I headed to the funeral.

But the thought stayed with me throughout the service. I should go back that way and be my very own flash mob. As I sat in Church listening to first my brother, and then my cousin talk about Uncle Andrew: a little bit bohemian, a little bit of a wordsmith, a little bit of an actor, a little bit of a communist, I thought my action could also be a little bit of a tribute to him. On my return journey, I pulled out my laptop, opened up the Monologues and chose two short passages by Kate, and the sadly recently deceased  Karen Sherlock. The train came closer and closer to Stratford, and I began to sweat. I don't mind public speaking but addressing a carriage of strangers was something else. The train pulled into Stratford. Lots of people exited, but I still had an audience of 15 or so. The doors closed. It was now or never. I jumped up, said I hoped people wouldn't mind, talked a bit about Atos, and read the stories to the somewhat bemused carriage. I finished by telling them about Karen's untimely death and by urging them to watch Dispatches on Tuesday (8pm Channel 4) and sat down, legs shaking. Much to my relief, nothing happened, nobody objected, nobody called the police and I left the train at Liverpool Street, heading for home.

I was considering whether to repeat the experience on the Hammersmith and City Line, but I didn't need to. Shamefully on the first day of the Olympics that have cost this country £10 BILLION, a young man with disabilities was so broke, he was forced to board a train and politely beg from us. For the second time in an hour, I jumped up from my seat to applaud him, and followed up by telling the carriage that this is a disgrace. He told us that up until a tumour appeared on his leg he'd worked and paid taxes. The doctors had hoped to fix it so he'd turned down the opportunity to apply for benefits two years ago. And now he is too sick to work, he cannot get support from the State. IN London. IN 2012. ON the first day of the greatest show on earth.

I've no idea what people made of my speechifying, or of my companion on the Tube. But one thing I am clear about. Unless we all start jumping up and saying our bit, nothing will change, nothing.

Now my protest is done, I do feel able to sit back and enjoy the only bit of the games that is worthwhile...the best sports people in the world striving for excellence. I'm off on holidays tomorrow but I'm glad to say, DPAC will be doing a proper reading of The Atos Monologues at the Counter Olympics Network protest in East London. We writers of the Monologues won't be there to see it, but it's great to know the words will be getting out there. As my Uncle Andrew knew, there's nothing so powerful.

(A Personal Post from one of the Collective)

First Acts

The most exciting thing about writing a play is when people start preparing to put it on.


We are delighted to announce the premiere of The Atos Monologues will take on the 28th July. Our friends in Disabled People Against Cuts and Our Olympics have organised a reading to take place as part of the Counter Olympic Network demonstrations in East London. We hope that lots of you will be able to get along. If you can't  we hope to have a link on this blog to livestream on the day.


We can also announce that Act Up, a small theatre company in Newham are well into rehearsals of Atos Stories. We'll keep you posted on progress


We're in conversation with people in Oxford and hope to have some news soon.


This is just the beginning, we'd love to hear from more of you...So any thespians please do get in touch atosstories@gmail.com


We are dedicating both plays to the memory of Karen Sherlock, disability campaigner and victim of the inhumanity of the work capability assessment system.

Beyond Angry

We started this project in response to the stories we heard about people dying after being found fit to work. Today we've heard that @pusscat01, one of the contributors to our Monologues has just died of cardiac arrest. She was awaiting dialysis, yet Atos found her fit enough to be placed in the work related activity group. She lost her ESA several weeks ago, and sent us and others on twitter anguished tweets about the impact this had on her life and finances. We couldn't help her, but we could listen to her story and use it in the play, and hopefully make something happen with that. She was terrified of her real name being revealed, so we promised to use the pseudonym "Pussycat". Although her real name is out on twitter, we're respecting that by reproducing her story below:

"At my medical the nurse made several statements with
regard to my health and capability regarding which group I should be placed in, these are as follows:-

·        “The people who check the forms, I believe are quite understanding and will have your best interests at heart
and be sympathetic to your needs and place you in the right (support) group.  If they do not place you in this group appeal it and you will win.”

·        “You are a genuinely ill person and are unemployable due to your multiple medical conditions.”

·         “You have been working for 22 years and have done your bit.  You are not the sort of person they are trying to single out.”

·        “When filling in the form do it more thoroughly.  I understand you find it vague but you can always fill in the white boxes and explain why you think this applies. This
will increase your chances of being placed in the correct group.”

                                                                                               

She also chose not to perform a physical examination or do a blood pressure test due to the pain and distress they may cause me.

I have greater than 50% visual loss and severe continence problems. I also suffer from chronic tiredness among many other problems, which is caused by a combination of Vitamin B12 deficiency, anaemia, kidney disease and long-term diabetes.

The report said I did not look tired. But the medical was
carried out late in the afternoon and I had spent the morning
in bed before I got up to be sure I could attend the medical!

With all that I thought I’d have enough points for the support group. I cannot believe I got placed in the Work Related
Activity Group.  My 1st tier appeal was lost and my rep let me down on the 2nd tier so it never got that far.

My experience is that depending on what doctor you see
every outcome seems to be different.  The fact that the
person I saw at the assessment actually said I should be
in the support group and then it changed when I got the final decision is amazing to me.  It would seem as though what
they say to you in the room does not transfer when it leaves that place."

Last we heard from Pussycat, she'd not had her benefits restored and was becoming increasingly worried and anxious. We're glad to hear from Sue Marsh at Diary of a Benefits Scrounger  that she was put back on ESA two weeks ago.
But the stress and anguish she was under for the past few months cannot have helped her deal with the physical problems she faced every day. We're beyond angry  to know that yet again someone so ill, so vulnerable has been treated so shamefully by the State. 

RIP Pussycat. We won't forget you.

The Play's The Thing...

We can't quite believe it but we actually have three plays to distribute to the world. And thanks to the magic of Scribd you should be able to download them for yourself. We doubt whether we'll be catching the conscience of any of the current kings and queens of welfare, but we do hope you will be able to use one or more versions of the play in your local communities to raise awareness.

Atos Stories - A Drama With Music 
http://www.scribd.com/doc/93380043/ATOS-STORIESVersion5May   (This version references a couple of cartoons from the 1940's. The Beveridge one is here & the Zec one here)
The Atos Monologues  http://www.scribd.com/doc/93379959/The-Atos-Monologues
Atos Street Theatre  http://www.scribd.com/doc/93380024/Atos-Stories-Street-Theatre

We want to try and log people's interest so PLEASE get in touch with us at atosstories@gmail.com, if you are up for this. At the moment we have no money but we are looking at ways we can get some to share around. We'll keep you posted.

We would also like to take this opportunity to thank all the people who contributed their often painful stories which have helped create these plays. We are sorry you have had to go through it, but grateful that you have enabled us to use the stories to help change the future:

David, Aletheia, Mary, Tim, Kate, Yvonne, Adam, Nelson, Elizabeth, Sam,Vincent, Pussycat, John, Adrian, Martin & all the fabulous people who took part in our Facebook and Twitter games.

We would also like to thank the following for their help:

Amelia Gentleman - The Guardian
Patrick Collins
James Ivens, Flood Theatre
John McArdle Black Triangle
Jon Peace News
Kaliya Franklin  Benefit Scrounging Scum
Sue Marsh Diary of a Benefit Scrounger
Nelson  DWP Examinations

And a huge thanks to Eve Ensler for The Vagina Monologues and Margaret Atwood for dramatising The Flood which inspired this work.