CPIT performers will be the only Kiwis treading the board at a British festival.

The Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology's (CPIT) Different Light Theatre Company will take its disability performance piece to the Ludus Festival in Leeds next week.

Tony McCaffrey, director and CPIT creative industries tutor, said festival organisers were billing the piece, called Still Lives, as a highlight.

"We are the only New Zealand company and the only disability company to be invited, so it is a real acknowledgement of the work we have been exploring for the last seven years,'' he said.

Still Lives came about in response to the challenges of Christchurch after the February 2011 earthquake, a ''disabled city''.

There was potential for better accessibility and ''inclusivity'' in city plans, McCaffrey said.

''Our work explores disability performance in a wider context than social issues theatre,'' he said.

''It's about real people dealing with their lives, so it can be confronting, it can be entertaining and it challenges what we mean by theatre. This approach has been very well received by audiences here and overseas.''

Performers Benjamin Morris, Isaac Tait and Glen Burrows will travel to Leeds thanks to $10,000 funding from Creative New Zealand.

The grant is the first time competitive funding has been awarded to people with intellectual disabilities to tour theatre overseas.

 

- © Fairfax NZ News

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