What Is It?

“Our Kid’s A Bit Different”’ will see us undertake a period of research on a new show with, by and for parents of Disabled children, allowing us to tell a different story, in a different way and to a different audience.

“Our Kid’s A Bit Different”’ will be autobiographical, personal and an honest exploration of the epic role of the parents who are forced to fight for their Disabled children’s basic human rights. Sadly this is becoming increasingly more relevant to today’s social climate of debates and cuts to “SEN/D” and the constant erosion of essential accessible services and education for Disabled young people. 

“Through the work of our sister company Daryl & Co, who create work for young audiences, we are having regular conversation with parents of Disabled children about the difficulties they face, reminding me of my mum who faced the same difficulties decades ago… and nothing has changed!” Daryl

Using a combination of Daryl’s mum’s diaries from his childhood and intertwined with verbatim interviews with parents of Disabled children in 2026,  “Our Kid’s A Bit Different” will draw parallels between parents from different decades and the shared experiences which are increasingly more relevant to today’s social climate.

Why Now?

In 1998, upon the death of his mum, Daryl discovered a secret diary she had kept for over 20 years about their family’s experiences of raising a Disabled child. It paints a picture of a working class family and the emotional tolls of raising a Disabled child during the 1970/80’s whilst fighting the local council for essential accessible services to education and equal opportunities.

“I had to start writing or phoning different schools to see if any of them would be willing to take Daryl, it’ tough and is getting me down that no one will take him. I find myself getting up in the middle of the night and either going for long walk or I’ll just sit there in the dark and stare into nowhere.”  Susan Beeton 1980

In this story the “Kid” may be the “central character”, but like the diary of Daryl’s mum, it tells the story of the child’s life from a parents view point, one that the child experienced but didn’t understand, but one that opens up a new view on what it’s like raising a Disabled child when your not just the parents, but also the support worker, the advocate and the politician.

No one has been creatively telling or interpreting these stories, which have been going on for decades, so it’s time to for these conversations and the words of Daryl’s mum’s secret diary to come out of the shadows and onto the stage.  

“We do feel powerless as SEND parents and a lot of the days feel like you’re fighting against the system… I’ve met so many people over the last few years who are tired and who are so worn down” Kellie Bright 2025

What’s The Approach?

A combination of text, movement and physicality will merge and support each other, enabling this show to break theatrical rules, challenge traditions and ask awkward questions. It will be beautifully dark, twisted and absurd. It will playfully challenging how audiences engage with the subject matters, which we already know at time can be painfully funny, but will always brutally honest.

“Our Kid’s A Bit Different” will allow us to explore a new powerful space where the politics of difference and identities can be explored, reflecting the texts of lived experiences in visual and theatrical ways and finding new approaches to engaging new audiences in what is sometimes sensitive and controversial topics that don’t get the space they need in our society.

“Our Kid’s A Bit Different”’ will involve exploration of:

Performance Context:  “Our Kid’s A Bit Different”’ will be performed by Daryl, but working with a wider Disabled-led creative team allowing us to explore how our current inclusive, non verbal creative practice can evolve into autobiographical text based work for adult audiences whilst still holding the core and ethos of our creative practice.

Inspired by Daryl’s early autobiographical work  “Moments in Motion” where the combination of text and movement was core to its creation. We will work with a movement Director with experience of visual & physical performance to allow us to explore what’s the best setting to present this work? How do audiences engage with the subject matter and visual style?

Dramaturgy:  Whilst we imagine this work to be visual & physical we will work with a Dramaturge to explore how text, physicality and visuals narratives can merge and support each other.

Design: We want to be ambitious in how our audiences experience the show, throughout the R&D metaphor and symbolism will meet reality in this creative exploration. How can the Design support the narrative, enable the audience to understand the complex emotional journey? 

As an artist Daryl’s work has always been political and “Our Kid’s A Bit Different” will be unapologetic in its approach to today’s political agenda and provide a space where we can take conceptual risks, look at different mediums of expression and investigate intimacy allowing us to tell a different story, in a different way and to a different audience. 

What We Need?

We are currently in “fundraising mode” for this period of research, with the plan to start in Autumn/Winter 2026.

We are looking for partners who can offer cash/seed funding (obviously) but also in-kind support such as space, access to parents of Disabled children, production expertise or creative approaches that can support our fundraising applications which will begin being submitted in May 2026.