D is for Dyslexia
D is for Dyslexia is an autobiographical/informational work of theatre playing with what it means to live in a world surrounded by words when you don't know how to use them. It is a monologue – well it’s really a duologue – but there is only one voice that speaks – Matt’s. Matt knew that there was a high likelihood that he would get distracted, so he prepared by having a pre-recorded version of himself to try and keep him on track. This journey isn’t linear. In efforts to get the audience to understand Matt’s word-challenged noggin, he meanders, digresses and pontificates about the history of language, how brains work, many a comical diagram, an unpacking of ‘masking’ (hint: it involves using lots of big words), a dipped toe into dyslexia in the education system, a list of 10 things people have said to him about his dyslexia, and something about the Great Gatsby which I promise makes sense in context. This all serves to build out the shape of how a dyslexic mind works as Matt unravels his own biography so the audience can witness the snags and catches of a life where words weren’t able to stick. It is playful, it is funny, it is honest, and – depending on the quality of Matt’s fact-checking – vaguely informative. Matt shares everything he thinks someone else would need to understand to understand how his dyslexia feels to him.
