Abstract: What is it like to live life sitting in a wheelchair? Looking at life through the obstacles and frustrations that people with restricted mobility face daily, one might discover that the mind and heart wander where the body fails. Superabile is a theatrical comedy that, through the interplay of acting and hand-drawn scenery, presents narratives about the lives of Matteo and Melanie (both spastic and in wheelchairs), Jason (with Down Syndrome), and Daniele (who is Autistic and acts as a caregiver). The depicted stories explore dreams, experiences, and everyday situations, which are told in a fragmented and abstract way. The piece follows less of a continuous plot and is more a sequence of different short stories. These are portrayed as “competitions” to cynically and critically illuminate the struggle for social integration that disabled people face daily.

Details: Our protagonist peacefully sleeps and dreams about a magical world in which he has superpowers: he conquers every obstacle in his path; he can fly; he skis from the top of a mountain, falls into the sea, and starts water-skiing. While a beautiful woman waves at him, his caretaker suddenly awakens him. He is a wheelchair user. His everyday routine begins, leaving his dreams behind. He is challenged in a contest on who can complete the everyday routine faster — washing up, going to the bathroom, exercising, showering. Unfortunately, he loses every battle, as his competitor is not in a wheelchair. The wheelchair restricts his mobility every day in every activity he does. If he wants to go out, he needs assistance, he cannot go up a staircase, and everything along his way becomes an insurmountable obstacle. He cannot do what people with functioning feet and legs can do. Moreover, as if these restrictions are not enough, people treat him as if he doesn’t understand, feel sorry for him, or ask foolish and demeaning questions about his disability. A woman, also in a wheelchair, arrives. She faces a second challenge: she is given a series of objects that she cannot reach. She always requires the presence of a caretaker, an intermediary person between her and the world, a shadow always assisting her in living life. An admirer arrives at her door with a bouquet of flowers and rings the bell. She hears the doorbell ring and looks through the peephole, but she cannot reach the doorknob to open it. She shouts, “Come in,” and when he finally enters, he attempts to court her. However, her caretaker intervenes. He takes her flowers and holds her hand instead until her admirer grows tired of him and throws him out. Finally, they are alone. She shares how her mind wanders to places where her legs cannot take her. She dreams of a forest, climbing up a giant plant, and ending up in a castle above the clouds. Thus far, the two protagonists in wheelchairs have lost all the contests they have been challenged to accomplish. Their caretaker and the challenger make one last attempt and invent another: “Am I doing well the way I am?” They present different scenarios in which they all inhabit different bodies and see which ones fit well. However, they are either too fat or too skinny, too young or too old, too weird or too ordinary. None of them truly works, and they lose again. They start to jest that they can never win, but then they shrewdly ask what the prize would even be if they were to win. They receive no answer because, in reality, there is no prize. Next, the two protagonists in wheelchairs begin a conversation, and after introducing themselves, he asks her what she sees when she looks at him. She sees a boy with green eyes, a blue shirt, and many other physical traits before mentioning the wheelchair. The narrator then concludes the show by posing the question to the audience: “When you look at us, what do you see?”