Self-care, or, how to start a revolution.

"Self-care, or, how to start a revolution" was commissioned for CRIPtic at Barbican in 2021.

The self-care industry claims to care about us, but when you put a disabled person at the centre of that practice, it begins to unravel. For this show Tom did a number of residencies exploring different self-care practices as a disabled person, from learning to run for a half marathon to training with Yoga.

A large amount of self-care aims to bring you to a place of calm which is very neurotypical, but for neurodivergent people that becomes forced assimilation / masking, which is anything but calming. What we need is not a scented candle, we need rent to be cheaper and a proper care system. We don't need an app with meditation, we need the government to stop launching attacks on our stability.

It raised a question - is individualistic self-care just a distraction? Does it keep us in a state of sedation that means we never start the revolution?

What he then created was a camp and interactive yoga class which, instead of teaching self-care, taught strategies for the revolution. This was a live performance but due to an outbreak of COVID in the company it became a short film, performed by Jodie Mitchell.

Further development for the live version is currently being explored.