What if autism were a musical, what would that look like? That is what actor, singer and theater maker Alex Klaasen wanted to invent Disorder of my lifehis first self-written, full-length musical. He worked on it for a year and a half, together with composer and director Peter van de Witte. It resulted in a wonderfully idiosyncratic production, in which giggles and lumps in the throat alternate seamlessly.
You are welcomed passionately (‘Welcome to the spectrum!’) by the main character Jasper, played by Klaasen himself. Jasper is an endearing, forty-nine-year-old man with ASD (an autism spectrum disorder) and an immense love for musicals. His most prized possession, he says, is a framed autograph by Pia Douwes.
What appeals to him about musicals, he explains, is their predictable structure. Because Jasper could use some guidance in his daily life, he decides to approach it as a musical in which he plays the leading role. Every event in his life becomes part of a plot that will ultimately – that’s how it goes with musicals – lead to an exuberant happy ending.
Successful meta-jokes
It provides material for a whole host of successful meta-jokes, in which Jasper comments on the progress of his own musical. But this finding is also very strong in terms of content. By having Jasper so clearly analyze the line along which a traditional plot usually unfolds, Klaasen makes visible how real life does not, of course, unfold according to those laws at all. Disorder of my life provides commentary in a surprisingly clear, funny and accessible way on the stories we tell each other, and the characters who are our role models in those stories. How we disqualify everything that makes a person unique.
Apart from that refined narrative form, there are also gems at scene level. The role of Jasper’s mother (Sylvia Poorta) is beautiful, who deprives her son of any form of autonomy out of the desire to protect him. What will happen later, if she is no longer there, will her child make it through, Klaasen asks her and other parents of neurodiverse characters in a beautiful song. Also unexpectedly moving is the solo by housemate Mo (Iris Bakker).
Jasper’s most important mirror figure in the musical is Willem, his younger brother (alternately played by Jim Bakkum and Soy Kroon), who wants to help him become more independent, but is then so controlling that he achieves the opposite. This character, who deserved more development, seems at first glance to lead a perfect life, but turns out to have to work hard to maintain that appearance of perfection.
And that’s how Klaasen makes it Disorder of my life palpable how the standards to which we are expected to conform our lives are not only for people with ASD, but for everyone. And how urgent it is time for a new kind of story. A story that does not judge or exclude, but celebrates that we are all different, all unique. With this warm-blooded musical, Klaasen puts his words into words.
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