I recall being impressed by Susan Williams’ skills as an improviser in 2019 when I saw them in Ferris Wheel but I was late to their party. An ‘exact match’ search on Theatreview reveals they were part of an improv team in 2014 that explored “roles beyond the maiden, the mother and the crone” in Taking Off the Bird Suit. The following year, they were part of the cast that devised My Favourite Problematic from stories submitted on Tumblr “about the unconscious decisions men and women make to submit to a world that is essentially built for men.”

Recent Improv Festivals have seen them in Duets, Dungeons & Improvisers and Blind/Sighted which they also directed. Last year Williams also ventured into stand-up in 100% Wrong, billed as “a gender-diverse evening of the darkest and dirtiest (and funniest) routines from the Fringe’s best comedians, drag stars, burlesquers, storytellers and more.”

It feels like a natural progression, then, that Williams is now gifting us their own “not-so-solo solo show”, Illegally Blind, in which “Susan just wants to get stuff done.”

Self-described as “a perfectly normal queer, fat, functionally blind, Autistic, chronically and mentally ill, nonbinary person,” this day-in-their-life depicts their quest to navigate from home to the bus stop, through the city and up steps from Boulcott Street to one of the many specialists they’ve been referred to, to get the diagnosis they hope will solve the mystery of what exactly her condition is.

Wearing their distinctive Steam Punk goggles, Susan has greeted us by offering us the choices of a braille or ‘sighted access’ programme, and projected text or audio described action, available on either side of the BATS Random Stage auditorium. A huge heap of clothes – a backlog of unfolded laundry – takes centre stage in front of a tinsel-decorated step ladder which will be cleverly utilised during the show.

As Susan begins their day, the melodramatic projected and audio descriptions (voiced by Anastasia Matteini-Roberts, Eddie Kerr and others) of their getting things done sets the satirically comic tone. Inviting the audience to call out the status of the overdue bus draws us further into Susan’s world. Unwanted help from a demanding woman on the steps becomes shockingly dramatic and brings us another layer of insight.  

Williams gives wickedly funny voice and sock puppet animation to the supporting (if that’s the word) roles, from Helpful Hilda and a passing Mother and Child, to Dr Danni, the Specialist they finally get to hear from. 

Perceptive and poignant poetic soliloquies are peppered throughout the action, enhancing our awareness even more; allowing us to empathise rather than simply sympathise. We are also treated to fascinating facts about long-finned eels. As for the build to the longed-for diagnosis … the twist is dramatic in more ways than one.

Amid a welter of physically manifested overwhelm, efficacious fantasy in the form of Rainbow River with a lilting Scots accent comes to the fore to alleviate Susan’s frustration. And within the boundaries of Covid caution, we get to help some more. As with all the best creative endeavours, imagination wins the day and the mash-up of metaphorical and all-too-real monster is vanquished.

I could say more – about exactly why it is called Illegally Blind, for example – but there is a finely-tuned dramatic structure in the way the facts of Susan’s life are revealed and some surprising theatrical tricks are employed in playing out the days events. Suffice to say, if you are disabled in any respect, you will relate to this. And if you like theatre that gives you a vacarious experience you are unlikely to have in your ‘real’ world, and that ‘opens your eyes’ more than they were before, book your tickets now.

Susan Williams has creatively conspired with director Anastasia Matteini-Roberts, designers Brynne Tasker-Poland (Lighting), Becky Sees (Set), Emma Maguire (Sound and Technical Operator), AV Operator Marshall Rankin, Stage Manager Charlie Hann (also producer) among others to bring us an insightful and idiosyncratically entertaining show. 

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