Autism and Reduced Humanity in All In A Row

Abstract

Popular media representations of autism all too often flatten or erase the subjectivity of autistic individuals, presenting autism as a condition that is defined by absence. Through such narrativizing, autistic people are confined to a limited and limiting framework, one which defines an autistic life as being inherently lesser, tragic, or not worth living at all. This article will examine how this process of dehumanisation occurs, through an analysis of Southwark Playhouse’s 2019 theatrical production All In A Row, a family drama featuring a grey faced puppet in the role of an autistic child with high support needs. Placing this depiction of autism alongside other media portrayals of families with autistic children, as well as historic medical literature about the condition, I expose how the literal dehumanisation ofthe performance’s autistic character is reflective of the rhetorical dehumanisation of autistic individuals and the denial of autistic subjectivity that has been created by historic medical discourse and mainstream media narratives.