On March 17th, 2025, the Government published Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working. Lin Kendall, the Work and Pensions Minister described the reforms as better supporting those who can work to get back into work, whilst maintaining that those who cannot work would remain protected. The £5 billion 'savings' will be the biggest cut to disability support benefits ever on record.
Join a panel of disabled artists and activists to discuss the plans to cut PIP (Personal Independence Payments), how it will impact the arts and artists, and the wider theatre industry.
Pannelists:
Richard Burgon MP
Member of Parliament for Leeds East since 2015, Shadow Justice Secretary 2016-2020, Richard Burgon has been a leading voice in the campaign to get the Government to drop the planned cuts to disability support, repeatedly speaking up in parliament and beyond to champion the issue.
Rachel Bagshaw
Rachel is an award-winning stage director and the current Artistic Director of Unicorn Theatre having previously been their Associate Director from 2018 to 2023. She was also an Associate at the National Theatre as a recipient of the Peter Hall Bursary for 2023/24.
Rachel made her directorial debut at the Globe Theatre in Spring 2024 directing The Duchess of Malfi on the Sam Wanamaker stage and other recent productions include: A Dead Body in Taos (Bristol Old Vic/ Wilton’s Music Hall), Augmented by Sophie Woolley (Royal Exchange/Told by an Idiot), Philip Pullman’s Grimm Tales and Greek Myths Unplugged, Let Loose (with Choreographer Arielle Smith, co-produced with English National Ballet), for Unicorn Theatre Online. Other theatre credits include Midnight Movie (Royal Court Theatre), The Bee in Me and Aesop’s Fables (Unicorn Theatre), Resonance at the Still Point of Change (Unlimited Festival, South Bank Centre), The Rhinestone Rollers and Just Me, Bell (Graeae). Her critically acclaimed work The Shape of Pain won a Fringe First at Edinburgh and was revived at Battersea Arts Centre in 2018. Film credits includes Let Loose (Unicorn Theatre Online/ENB) and Where I Go (When I Can’t be Where I Am (BBC/China Plate).
She is an Associate Artist at Wilton’s and works extensively in engagement and young people’s work.
Ciaran Stewart
Ciaran Stewart trained at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland on the BA Performance in British Sign Language and English degree programme back in 2015 and has worked in a wide range of theatre productions working with theatres such as Headlong, Paines Plough and Sheffield Theatres. Last year, he was in “Dungeons, Dragons & Quest for D***” & “The Wolves at the Door” with Play, Pie & A Pint and “Chariots of Fire” at the Sheffield Crucible. He’s toured all over the UK, performing in London, Nottingham, Birmingham to name a few.
Alongside, he has worked as a Director, BSL Consultant and Caption Consultant, working as Access Lead/Administrator for Collective Text, a collective of Disabled Artists based in Glasgow.
He on the Deaf & Disabled Committee at Equity and is standing again for it, hoping to carry on the work and fight against the PIP/ATW cuts.
This event will be BSL interpretation by Hahna Ahmed.
“British theatre would be completely stymied without tiny, under-resourced venues such as CPT, which are a critical part of the theatre ecology.”
Lyn Gardner Stagedoor
