Birds of Paradise Theatre Company

Scotland's touring theatre company promoting disabled artists and supporting the arts sector

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The woman is standing on the left behind the musical equipment that is covered in a blue sheet. She is smiling. On the right, the man in the wheelchair is holding a microphone with his mouth wide open and his head thrown back. In the middle of them, there is a screen on wheels with two people on it against a white background. One of these people appears to be holding a white toy pony.

Productions ►  

Super Special Disability Roadshow: Film

What it means to be disabled and how different generations of disabled people feel about their identities

Roadshow hosts Rob and Sal are testing out Rob’s new high tech version of their roadshow. Desperate to stay with it Rob has embraced the digital era. Opening with a cheery (some might say cheesy!) ditty, they launch into their new show. Things are going pretty well, as Rob and Sal teach us what it’s like for disabled people in today’s world … until the younger generation decides to set them straight!

Drawing on stories and experiences of disabled children and adults, the show explores what it means to be disabled and how different generations of disabled people feel about their identities, with characteristic BOP humour, heart and honesty.

Super Special Disability Roadshow is both a live show and a film.

Written by Robert Softley Gale
Directed by Joe Douglas
With original songs by Sally Clay
Film made in association with Urban Corft
An original commission by Imaginate for Edinburgh International Children’s Festival

Find out about Super Special Disability Roadshow: Live

Sal, Rob, Oona and Ollie pose with big smiles, and smile for a photograph. They are backstage and there is lighting and sound equipment in the background all set against a greenscreen. They are posing with a large rainbow tube around them.

Schools & Family Resources

Super Special Disability Roadshow This page has information on it to help you have conversations about Super Special Disability Roadshow and the ideas in […]

This pack includes a whole host of different ways young ones can continue to think about and explore the issues raised in the film.

To enquire about booking either the live show or the film, please email michelle@boptheatre.co.uk, or download the tour packs –

SSDR Hybrid Tour Pack.pdfDownload
SSDR Film Tour Pack.pdfDownload

Theatre in Schools Scotland at 10

Super Special Disability Roadshow returns in Autumn 2026 as part of the celebratory 10th year session for Theatre in Schools Scotland.

For P4-S2 pupils
​9-20 November 2026
15-26 March 2027
This filmed performance will be available to watch in school for a period of two weeks. There will be two opportunities to watch the film for teachers to choose from, in November 2026 and March 2027.
Alongside the film, we will be offering Twilight CLPL Sessions for teachers in select areas, and a filmed version of this CLPL session will be available as well.

Click here for more information available on the TiSS website.

The Team

Robert Softley Gale – Performer
Sally Clay – Performer
Oona Dooks – Performer
Oliver Martindale – Performer
Natalie MacDonald – BSL Interpreter / Performer
Robert Softley Gale – Writer
Joe Douglas – Director
Sally Clay – Composer
Mairi Taylor – Creative Producer
Ali Maclaurin – Set & Costume Design
Natalie MacDonald – BSL Interpreter
Emma-Jane McHenry – Audio Describer
Novasound – Sound Design & Production
Michelle Rolfe – Producer
Niall Black – Production Manager
Avalon Hernandez – Stage Manager
Siobhán Scott – Stage Manager (on book)
Guy Coletta – Production Sound Engineer
Urban Croft – Film Makers
Niall Walker – Marketing Consultant

Access

The Super Special Disability Roadshow film comes in three different versions:
1 – with Captions; 2 – with BSL interpretation (there are 2 BSL options to choose from); 3 – with Audio Description.

Reviews

“[An] exploration of the changing politics of disability”
Joyce McMillan, The Scotsman
“… a collision of memories, bickering, songs, animations, jokes and serious commentary.“
Mark Fisher, The Guardian
“Smart, funny and nuanced online show exploring lived experiences of disability“
Thom Dibdin, The Stage
How the Edinburgh International Children’s Festival is gearing up to stage live performances
Preview: The Scotsman

Photos and Videos

Set and character descriptions for context

The following series of images from the Super Special Disability Roadshow production.

The stage has a keyboard on stage right covered in a light blue cloth and the floor matches the colour of this cloth. For the backdrop there is a large rainbow arch with the letters ‘SSDR’ painted in a bright graffiti design in the middle. The D has the silhouette of a person in a wheelchair in it. There are a few black flight cases for equipment dotted about the place.

Rob is a middle aged white man with short brown hair and glasses in a wheelchair. He is wearing a bright blue t-shirt with the same SSDR graffiti logo as the set. Sal is a middle aged white woman with blonde hair who is blind. She is wearing a bright pink tshirt with the same SSDR logo and a yellow baseball cap sideways. Ollie and Oona are two children who appear in the show via video chat. Ollie is ten, a wheelchair user, with short blonde hair and glasses. Oona is seven, a wheelchair user, with a short bob haircut.

The woman is standing on the left behind the musical equipment that is covered in a blue sheet. She is smiling. On the right, the man in the wheelchair is holding a microphone with his mouth wide open and his head thrown back. In the middle of them, there is a screen on wheels with two people on it against a white background. One of these people appears to be holding a white toy pony.
A close up of Sally behind the music deck. She appears to have a keyboard in front of her. Her mouth is open as she appears to be singing.
Robert and Sally are sitting in foldout chairs in front of the aforementioned set. His seat is much taller than hers. He is looking down at her as they appear to be having a conversation. On set there is a woman with short dark hair sweeping the stage.
Sally and Robert are positioned at the front of the stage. Robert, on the right, has his arms positioned in an X as he looks over at Sally. Sally, on the left, is smiling and has her hands lifted at her sides as if mid gesture.
Sally stands behind the music desk. There is a long fluorescent light bulb running across the top of it that lights her face. It is giving of a lilac glow. Her mouth is open and she appears to be mid song.
A close up of Robert on stage. He is smiling with his mouth wide open and his hands open at either side of him.
Sally stands behind the music deck with the fluorescent light on top of it. On the floor in front of the desk, there are 3 long lights with 4 different coloured bulbs in each of them: red, yellow, green and white. The white bulbs are lit up. Robert is near the front of the stage and is looking back at Sally with one of his hands opened and raised.
A shot of Robert near the side of the stage. He has both of his arms stretched up high in the air. To the right of him, there is the screen on a wheelchair. The wheelchair has various brightly coloured stickers all over it. The screen is split with video feeds of Ollie and Oona, at the top is Oona with a dark bob haircut holding a white toy unicorn. Beneath her is Ollie.

The following images are taken in different backstage rooms at Screen Skills Academy, where the SSDR film was made. Some of them are taken at some of the location shoots for the filming. The pictures feature Rob, Sal, Ollie, Oona (described above) and Joe Douglas – the director – a middle aged white man with a tight pony tail, and other various members of the crew.

Sal, Rob, Oone and Ollie pose with big smiles, and smile for a photograph. They are backstage and there is lighting and sound equipment in the background all set against a greenscreen. They are posing with a large rainbow tube around them.
A swing set outside. There are two very young toddlers, each in their own swing with behind pushing them. In front of them there is a man on one knee holding a camera filming them. Everyone is wearing thick winter coats.
A rehearsal room full of people spread out on chairs. The camera is focused on Joe (the director) middle aged man with long grey hair that is pulled back. He is wearing a green patterned mask and is looking at something off camera. He has one hand reached out and is touching something large and blue on the floor.
Oona sits backstage. She is holding a large red and green tube in their hands as if about to dunk her head in the end. It is about large enough for a person to crawl through.
A photo of Ollie backstage. He is doing a wheelie on the large back wheels of his wheelchair with the small front two up in the air. He has a facemask pulled down at his chin
A photo taken outside of a small building. Rob and Sal are surrounded by a camera crew. There is a camera and a mic on a boom pointed at them. Joe and Oona watch on from a distance.
People sit around a rehearsal room. In the foreground is Oona in her chair, in the background is Joe, holding an iPad and Sal facing Oona with her back to the camera.
A shot of a cluttered corridor. There are various things lining it, such as: lights, cardboard boxes and pieces of furniture. In the middle there is Ollie in a wheelchair looking down at their phone.
Sal, Rob, Ollie and Oona pose in front of a green screen in a diamond formation. They are all wearing different coloured T shirts that have ‘SSDR’ written on them. Sal is at the back, smiling with her arms outstretched and a folded cane in one hand. In front of her there are Roba dn Ollie, who are both smiling. At the very front is is Oona, who has her arms in the air.
Seven people sit around two white round tables in front of a large window. There are various food and drink items on the tables. Everyone is looking towards Joe who appears to be reading off of an iPad.
A Q&A with Joe, Robert and Sally, hosted by Noel Jordan, Festival Director – Edinburgh International Children’s Festival

Production Story

Director’s Note

Our show goes wrong…at least, that’s what Rob would say. 

He would sit there, with a star on his chair, telling everyone who cares to listen about what is right and wrong about disability.

But the show doesn’t ‘go wrong’, it’s just different from what was expected. It becomes different because Ollie and Oona, the young heroes of the story, speak up and say what they believe to be true, how being disabled affects them and how it is different from Rob’s experience.

Sal’s experience is different again – she doesn’t use a wheelchair like the others do – she is blind, which shapes how she accesses the world around her. For years, she has been Rob’s smiling, singing sidekick, trapped in a show that doesn’t express what she is really feeling. Rob doesn’t really listen to her, until the children’s words make her feel more brave.

Oona says that the key message to pass on to children about disability is: “talk to one another”. 
Talking only works with a lot of listening. And then understanding. And then changing what you do as a result, how you act. Put it all together and you have COMPASSION, which is really what The Super Special Disability Roadshow is all about.

Joe Douglas 
Director of Super Special Disability Roadshow

Writer’s Note

At BOP we’re constantly trying to reach new audiences in ways that are engaging and entertaining – trying to make the stories of disabled people more part of wider society so that barriers begin to come down. And like most messages, the key to getting this one across is to ‘get them young’. I used to be asked for my views as a ‘young disabled person’ all the time and then, one day, I realised that didn’t happen anymore – because I wasn’t young. So I wanted to find out how things have changed for young disabled people nowadays – have they got better or not?

Through workshops in schools and with groups of disabled young people we gathered stories and found some potential performers – Ollie and Oona stood out from the first time we met as being great examples of what today’s young disabled experience is. This show has taken a few years in the making as we knew what we wanted to say but not exactly how to say it. Everyone involved – the director, producer, designer…everyone – has brought so much to this show but my costar and the songwriter extraordinaire – Sally Clay – is probably our secret ingredient. Her generosity, amazing musical skills and cutting wit are so much of what this show is about. A huge thanks to her and to everyone else.

We’d love to be sharing this show with you ‘in the flesh’ right now but, until that’s possible, please sit back, hit the play button, and enjoy MY show! 

Robert Softley Gale
Artistic Director – Birds of Paradise Theatre Company

We Didn’t Make It on Our Own

The Super Special Disability Roadshow was commissioned by Imaginate and produced as part of the Edinburgh International Children’s Festival 2021

“Birds of Paradise were delighted to be commissioned by Imaginate to take our approach of adult theatre to younger audiences. Working with young people in making this show has been incredible fun. We like being honest and so do they! We are excited to bring conversations about disability into schools because we’ve been doing it far too long for adults and the world isn’t changing fast enough! Maybe the future will be accessible? We think we have made something that will make everyone laugh and think – and leave with a better understanding of disability.”
A quote from our Artistic Director, Robert Softley Gale, about being part of the festival

You can find out more about Edinburgh International Children’s Festival 2021 here.