Jess Thom AKA Touretteshero Uses Her Tics To Make Theatre

What prompted you to create Backstage in Biscuit Land?  
The roots are in a difficult experience I had at the theatre in 2011. I’d gone to see a show and to meet Mark Thomas at a theatre in London. I’d got in touch with Mark and the theatre before the night and did everything to explain my tics and to prepare them. Mark was wonderful. We met beforehand and he introduced me at the start of the show, but people still moaned about me in the interval. The manager asked if I could move to the sound booth at the side and that was absolutely devastating. I cried and made a promise to myself that I would never go to the theatre again.

But it wasn’t a promise I kept. In fact, I decided to look for the only seat in the house where I wouldn’t be asked to leave – on the stage. Along with theatre creator Jess Mabel Jones, who I perform in the show with, and Matthew Pountney, co-founder of Touretteshero, I created Backstage in Biscuit Land. It’s a show that talks about my experiences with Tourette’s and my journey from Tourette’s sufferer to superhero. Most importantly, it talks about theatre itself and our belief that if you make it inclusive it makes it better for everyone.

How is it designed as an evening for everyone, including people who may tic during the performance?  
All of our shows are relaxed performances – that’s a movement within British theatre describing shows that offer a warm welcome to everyone, particularly people who might not be able to follow usual conventions and theatre etiquette. There’s usually pre-show information so people know what to expect. People can make individual noise if they need to, they can go in and out, and everybody involved in the theatre understands that’s happening and is trained to be able to support further access needs.

Up until fairly recently they’ve often been associated with children’s shows; we’re very proud of our role in promoting adult relaxed performances – they’re for everybody and create a more dynamic and exciting theatrical experience. All of our shows are relaxed, and all of our shows are different because I’m neurologically incapable of doing the same show twice.

How has the show affected how you think about your own Tourette’s? Has it helped?
Touretteshero, in general, isn't just a show. We’re an organisation that’s been running for six years and we use the creativity of Tourette’s to create understanding and to build a more inclusive community. The show itself has definitely made me feel more confident about explaining what I need, asking for help when I need it, and feeling confident in my right to be in a public place with other people.

Do you get a lot of creative ideas from some of the vocal tics you’ve experienced – some of them are quite vivid in their imagery...
Central to Touretteshero is the idea that the tics have value, are interesting and creative in their own right, and that not doing something with them would be wasteful. It’s an idea that’s embedded in everything we do. It’s not just about using them as a springboard for my own creativity, but inviting other people to use them too. The website has over 300 images and poems in our gallery inspired by tics. With Backstage in Biscuit Land, the tics generate or have helped generate lots of the texts and scripts. Obviously I don’t stick to them, they evolve constantly. If they’re an interesting idea, we add that into future shows. It’s using my neurology as a creative tool and explaining that to other people.

What kind of feedback have you got from audiences?
We’ve had an incredibly warm response from audiences, and really wide audiences. One of the things I hadn’t anticipated when we first took the show to the Edinburgh Fringe in 2014 was the great response we would get from other theatre makers, performers and directors. We’ve got loads of invitations to go and see other people’s work, but most importantly, other people involved in theatre got interested in the idea of relaxed performances. As a direct result of seeing our show, the Old Vic held its first ever relaxed performance at the start of the year.

We often talk about creativity being able to spark change but I think the show Backstage in Biscuit Land is a really interesting example of that in practise. We’ve also had amazing responses from audiences of all ages up and down the country and we’re really looking forward to bringing it to Nottingham. In terms of negative responses, we haven’t received a huge amount. I’m sure that there are some people who… it’s probably quite a different experience and it may be that some of the ideas challenge traditions of theatre etiquette, but generally, people are open to that.

illustration: Rikki Marr

Were you nervous or worried about the responses of charities and people with Tourette’s?
To be honest, no I wasn’t. It felt like a very natural and a very important thing to do. Maybe I was nervous about whether I would be able to do the subject justice, and it’s obviously a creative challenge to build a show that allows space and spontaneity, while getting the messages that we wanted to share across when we first started.

It did feel like there were more risky things that we wanted to say and explore which could be a threat. We didn’t know how people would respond; that felt quite new. People in the Tourette’s community have been very positive, as well as the wider disability community and other people who aren’t affected by disability directly. The Tourette’s show is for everybody – with or without tics – and it’s through shared knowledge and shared laughter that we can create real social change.

Do your tics evolve or do you generally have the same set of tics?
They change – some are very different and are a very persistent presence in my life. I do say the same regular set and have had the regular tic of ‘biscuit’ for six years. Before that, for an equally long period of time, my main tic was ‘squirrel’, but I don’t say that at all anymore. It could change at any point, which could lead to a slight branding issue for the show... The same tic will change, becoming more complex or simpler, but tics are random. Everything I’ve ever known can become a tic and why or what certain words do is eclectic and a complete mystery. I definitely don’t think about biscuits nearly as much as I talk about them.

Do you have a tic that you’re quite fond of?
Some have really lovely qualities to them, and I like lots of them for different reasons. “Replace every chimney in London with a penguin” is one of my personal favourites because the imagery it creates in my mind. There’s a tic that goes, “It is the hippies of outrageous fortune that weigh heavy on the mind of dogs”, which is obviously messed up Shakespeare, which I really enjoy. Again, not because it was insightful, but because it took really unusual ideas and added them together in an interesting way. And I’m always very fond of tics where I talk to the sky or the moon or the stars. “Moon did he get fat with the stars”, I quite like that one.

Do you think theatre has had too many barriers in place for people in general?
Like with a lot of areas of life, there are barriers for people who speak differently, and there’s a lot of theatre and public spaces that don’t consider that some people need to do things differently. There are movements to change those. I also think it’s very easy to live with a condition like Tourette’s and to put up your own barriers.

My choice to stop going to the theatre was largely because of my preconceptions about it not being the space for me. Some of that definitely came from the messages I got from the world around me, but some of that was from my own discomfort with my tics and my condition. Being able to accept myself and learn more, and advocating through my own access and my own needs, as well as that of others, has had a powerful impact. We need to change barriers wherever they exist within institutions and some of that may be within ourselves.

Note: for clarity we’ve edited out Jess’s tics from the interview, but to read more about them visit the Touretteshero website.

Touretteshero’s tics, in all their surreal glory, are posted on the website and people are invited to draw their own interpretations of them. We picked a few of our favourites...

“Roland Rat ketchup monologue.”

“It’s raining bears and mums.”

“Slam dunk the spunk.”

“Good afternoon, Britain. Please pencil in a revolution.”

“David Blaine is on fire in your mother’s womb.”

“Aladdin has sprained his wrist masturbating with a kettle lead and a fish.”

“Imagine I was a gas, a liquid and a solid in Brighton.”

“Higgledy piggeldy bestiality.”

“Daz or lightbulbs? Choose.”

“Peanut butter knickers.”

“Shake your fist at a dog’s scrotum.”

“Lamp-post, your light is more beautiful than a nightingale playing the harmonica.”

“I love sharp and precise nice biscuits.”

“Stuff your turkey with biscuits.”

“I’ve never thought about teenage pregnancy in wolves.”

“Fractions speak louder than words.”

Backstage in Biscuit Land, Nottingham Playhouse, Wednesday 9 - Thursday 10 March 2016, £13/£15.

Touretteshero website