Play music from show
- based on Looper song Skinny Legs

Reviews

Press Reviews for If These Spasms Could Speak

“This is timed perfectly, delivered impeccably and has one of the most charming narrators I have had the privilege of sitting in front of for years. Gale’s theatricality is spot on. The video work is integral, his timing with the comedy and his self deprecating humour is as honest as it is sharp, his understanding of how to move and keep us fascinated is a performer’s style of telling the tale that never lessens its impact.
Donald C Stewart, Fringe Review ★★★★★ Click here to open the full review

“…[this] tough and tender verbatim play—woven from interviews in which disabled people talk freely about their relationship with their bodies—is strikingly lucid.

Softley is a canny and engaging performer, switching effortlessly from cheeky charisma to poignant interrogation of his experiences living with cerebral palsy. The focus on body image is a smart piece of misdirection, because while the physical limitations Softley and his interviewees describe are recurrent themes, If These Spasms Could Speak is far more concerned with the way their bodies negotiate life; facing, overcoming or sinking under the familiar problems of love, sex, parenting and music festivals.

While many of the short monologues are brilliantly funny, such as one woman’s celebration of her “awesome tits”, the best moments are those in which Softley speaks in his own voice, particularly about that paradoxical visibility disabled people experience – that opacity that draws stares but not recognition or acknowledgement.”
Stewart Pringle, Fest Mag ★★★★ Click here to open the full review

“Amid all the show’s complex mesh of thoughts and memories… – and a strong, sexy sense of the sheer value and beauty of life, however physically difficult – it’s Softley’s own voice that sings most clearly… Every fragment of his behaviour, after all – from crawling on stage to take up his place in the spotlight, to stripping off at the behest of a remembered nosy doctor – is transformed, made harder, made new by his physical limitations. And in celebrating his own life, he makes us see our own, with completely fresh eyes.”
Joyce McMillian, Scotsman ★★★★ Click here to open the full review

“As Softley crawls onto the stage, there’s a roguish grin on his face, maybe because he knows his monologue, his very presence, is a challenge to how society still pigeon-holes the disabled – and it’s probably not as the kind of well-educated, successful writer/performer who now entertains us with personal anecdotes of a frank and sometimes horny nature. The man is a charmer. Good-looking, self-aware and a slyly witty raconteur…his solo show is rendered wryly humorous. But it’s when he muses on his body’s condition…that you truly appreciate Softley’s untrammelled passion for being alive in the moment – fine, fierce and inspirational.”
Mary Brennan, Herald ★★★★ Click here to open the full review

Paul F Cockburn, disability arts online Click here to open the full review