Episode: Relaxed Performance, Representation & Disabled Lives in the Arts Guest: Eleanor Walsh — Autistic actor, writer, disability advocate; performer in Chronically Hopeful, Grace, Yellow, Daughter of God, and What I Don't Know About Autism at the Abbey Theatre; Youth Ambassador with AsIAm; featured in Be Inspired: Young Irish People Changing the World by Sarah Webb.

Host: Al Bellamy Producer: Ian Lawton

Episode summary

Eleanor Walsh joins Al Bellamy for a deep exploration of relaxed performance, autistic representation, and what it means to build a sustainable career in the Irish arts sector as a disabled professional. She shares her early discovery of relaxed performance, the influence of online autistic communities during the 2010s, and the realities of balancing masking, energy limits, and workplace culture in theatre. The conversation moves between personal history, sector-wide critique, and hopeful visions for genuine inclusion.

Key takeaways

• Relaxed performance removes rigid theatre conventions and centres human needs: movement, stimming, leaving/re-entering, adjusted lights and sound.

• Relaxed spaces support performers as much as audiences—visibility, unpredictability, and new forms of liveness.

• The arts sector often embraces neurodivergence rhetorically, but follow-through on accommodations is inconsistent.

• Disabled artists face extra hidden labour: deciding when to disclose, when to mask, and when to request support.

• Mainstream and accessible theatre remain separated worlds, a sign of incomplete inclusion.

• Online autistic communities (Tumblr, early blogs) offered representation and survival knowledge before social media mainstreaming.

• Intergenerational autistic visibility—kids seeing autistic adults thriving—remains transformative.

• Community requires actions, not just language; inclusion must extend beyond the stage to social spaces, networking, and rehearsal culture.

Topics & timestamps

• 00:00–02:25 — Introductions; friendship context; what relaxed performance is.

• 02:25–04:50 — Relaxed performance explained: conventions loosened; sensory and access adjustments.

• 04:50–09:00 — Early Irish context; learning from UK disability arts; relaxed performance as artistic form.

• 09:00–15:35 — What it feels like to perform relaxed: visibility, unpredictability, audience responses, cue work.

• 15:35–17:40 — Managing energy, physical limits, and the myth of "the show must go on."

• 17:40–20:20 — Social spaces (canteens, pubs) as hidden access barriers.

• 20:20–23:10 — Acceptance vs. tokenistic inclusion; being valued until one is "too autistic."

• 23:10–26:00 — Masking, disclosure, and adjusting accommodation requests with career progression.

• 26:00–29:20 — Working across mainstream and accessible sectors; navigating mismatched expectations.

• 29:20–32:45 — Childhood, diagnosis, Kilkenny's arts culture, and entering theatre.

• 32:45–38:25 — Pre-social-media autistic community: Tumblr, Geocities archives, foundational texts.

• 38:25–43:20 — Intergenerational autistic visibility; community survival; need for continuity.

• 43:20–46:30 — Shifts in language, identity-first terminology, and evolving disability culture.

• 46:30–48:15 — Closing; "one boring thing" prompt; food shopping confession.

Resources mentioned

• What I Don't Know About Autism by Jodie O'Neill

• Be Inspired: Young Irish People Changing the World — Sarah Webb

• John Elder Robison's writing ("Help, I Seem to Be Getting More Autistic")

• NeuroTribes — Steve Silberman

• Yellow — Bounce Disability Arts Festival

Pull quotes

• "Relaxed performance acknowledges that we're all human beings with human needs."

• "You can be autistic for people until you are autistic for people."

• "The fact that we have to talk about mainstream theatre and accessible theatre is pretty shocking."

• "Autistic kids seeing autistic adults — that's survival."

Credits

Host: Al Bellamy Guest: Eleanor Walsh Producer: Ian Lawton Recorded for the Neuroconvergence Podcast.