Neurodiverse performers need to make a living too

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“I like being flamboyant,” says pioneering performance poet, writer and actor Cian Binchy. “There’s not enough of that these days – everything’s so dull and conservative.”

These are not adjectives you would associate with Binchy, autism consultant on award-winning play The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, which will be touring the UK and Ireland for a third time from the autumn.

As an autistic actor, Binchy, 29, has challenged the infantilisation of disabled people, by playing a giant baby in a pink romper suit (Binchy is 6ft 1in). In his critically acclaimed one-man show, The Misfit Analysis, which premiered at the 2015 Edinburgh festival, he also challenged preconceptions about the autistic mind.

He is currently starring in unReal City at Battersea Arts Centre in south London, in a virtual reality show he co-devised about life in a digital world. Binchy is also about to take on the role of part-time digital influencer at Access All Areas, a theatre company that puts on productions made by learning-disabled and autistic artists.He wants to reach more people so they understand the talent of performers like himself.

“Social media can be really bad for people with learning disabilities or autism. It’s easy to hide behind a keyboard and bully other people. It’s also not real life … You can have a virtual home in a virtual world with a virtual social life, but we need people to have real lives in the real world, and real opportunities,” says Binchy.

Arts Council England figures show that only 6% of people who work in the arts are disabled, compared with 21% of the wider working population (in film, the figure is 0.3%).

Binchy says: “You need to see yourself up there in order to be more confident and know that you’re also included in society. There are so many amazing performers with learning disability and autism out there who deserve an opportunity to show what they can do.”

He wants to see more inclusive arts charities like Access All Areas set up. “The problem is that people often think that the only kind of theatre that neurodiverse people can do is a tiny performance in a church hall … people see it and say ‘Ah, that’s nice they’re doing well’. But we don’t just want to get out of the house – we want a purpose in life and we need to earn money just like anyone else. When I earn money, I can make a better living for myself, I’m doing something I love and it’s being taken seriously.”

Binchy is driven by the need to express himself “and wanting to show I’m doing something that I’m good at and have a talent for”.

In his teens, he noticed how he was treated differently from his non‑disabled peers. “I hated watching all the other teenagers walking off to [the local] school, with me being stuck on this minibus [to the special school]. It was embarrassing, like segregation.” He also felt overprotected at times, such as being followed too closely by well‑meaning support staff when learning to travel independently.

Binchy says people assume “we’re all just victims or vulnerable”. He adds: “We can be good, we can be bad. We can be funny.” How does he describe his disability? “I have emotional issues and I’m autistic. I’d also say that I sometimes struggle with mental health. But people want to put you in a box just called ‘autism’ – even if they don’t mean any harm, it’s not as simple as that. I don’t like being labelled.”

Other challenges include society’s presumption that “people like us” are asexual. “I remember talking to someone who said ‘That’s nice’ when I introduced my girlfriend. That was so patronising. Why can’t someone like me be in a relationship?” When he toured the Midlands with his one-man show, a B&B landlady spoke to his non-disabled colleague, not to him. He says: “She talked about me, not even looking at me. It made me feel terrible and like a child.”
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He lives at home with his mother and younger brother Conor, who is autistic and non-verbal. “I worry about what will happen to my brother when my mum isn’t around. I don’t like what I hear about residential care – people not being able to do things they want to do but having to fit in with the [staff] schedule,” he says. Through Access All Areas, Binchy has trained nurses to improve learning-disabled and autistic patients’ experience of healthcare.

The actor also worries welfare reform is undermining people’s support. “I’m on universal credit – don’t get me started on that, it’s been a nightmare. It is so complicated and it’s hurting a lot of people.”

Binchy says it is important that neurodiverse performers don’t compare themselves with other disabled artists. “Everyone is an individual,” he says. “We all have different talents and what you do will be unique.”
Curriculum vitae

Age: 29.

Lives: Ealing, west London.

Family: Single, one brother.

Education: Springhallow secondary school, Ealing; Acton College (BTec drama, Gatehouse – a transitional programme for autistic learners); Hammersmith College (life skills); Royal Central School of Speech and Drama (performance-making diploma).

Career: March 2020 to present: Access All Areas digital influencer, Access All Areas performer and deviser, unReal City, Battersea Arts Centre; 2016 to present: artist, Access All Areas; 2019: played Tom Dee, Doctors, BBC; 2016: played Tate Le Saux, The Level, ITV; 2018: Madhouse re:exit play, Access All Areas; 2017 to present: actor, role-playing with student nurses to raise awareness about autistic patients; 2015-18: performer and writer, The Misfit Analysis (UK tour and ITESM University, Mexico); 2016: trainer, performance-making diploma, Royal Central School of Speech and Drama; 2014-18: regular performance poetry events; 2014-15: performer, Eye Queue Hear, Access All Areas, UK tour; 2012-16: acting consultant, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Piccadilly theatre, London; 1984: Mr Douglas [a play], Lyric Hammersmith, London.

Public life: Public speaker at the 2015 Autism and Comedy Symposium at the University of Kent; Ambitious About Autism eventsand at the Houses of Parliament launch of the NHS autism/learning disability initiative Ask Listen Do.

Awards and honours: 2016: People’s Choice award for The Misfit Analysis at the Vault festival, London.

Interests: Writing poetry, listening to music, swimming.