James Sanders wasn’t sure whether he’d complete his actors’ training when, at age 21, an accident on New Years Eve left him quadriplegic.
But a 1981 Richard Dreyfuss movie called Whose Life Is It Anyway?, which was adapted from a television play, renewed his resolve and determination.
In the film, Dreyfuss plays Ken Harrison, a sculptor recently paralyzed from the neck down, who fights to have his rights supersede those of the medical system.
“That was really empowering and inspiring,” Sanders said. “It was also ridiculously funny.”
He saw humour connected to disability and himself in the playful Harrison.
Sanders felt he couldn’t play the middle-aged Harrison anytime soon, so he shelved the idea.
Sanders went on to become the founding artistic director of Realwheels Theatre and when he sought a follow-up to the company’s 2010 production Spine, he read the three-decade-old Tony-award-winning play for the first time, contacted the elderly British playwright Brian Clark and convinced him to update it and waive the royalties.
It seemed like the perfect time for a more mature Sanders to embody the character that had motivated him as a young man.
The show was on the road with Sanders’ actor friend Bob Frazer set to perform the lead role at matinees and as Sanders’ understudy.
But many months of serious medical problems made Sanders eventually withdraw from the role.
Frazer worried that as an able-bodied person he shouldn’t play a disabled man.
“Ultimately, [Sanders] said the smartest thing. He said, ‘Look, my company isn’t about giving jobs to people with disabilities. My company is about enriching peoples’ lives through the disability experience,’” Frazer said.
Frazer and Sanders have been buddies since before Sanders, now on medical leave from Realwheels, became disabled and Frazer said he feels proud to get to play a version of his friend.
“I’m lucky enough to be able to tell his story in a sense, his emotional life that very few people may know about,” he said.
Sanders is pleased to have Frazer, who directed Spine and co-starred with him in Realwheels’ Skydive, to perform with a cast that includes Patti Allan, Jennifer Lines and Dawn Petten, along with director John Cooper.
Whose Life Is It Anyway? is a complete departure from Realwheels’ previous productions Skydive and Spine.
“Those shows were all about technology and mind-blowing staging or projections,” Frazer said. “This one is about heart and soul.”
The young Sanders saw Whose Life is it Anyway? as a vehicle for him to do something interesting. Now he sees it through the eyes of a 43-year-old married father who wants to be around for his son when he’s an adult, and as someone who sees the play’s broad appeal, with questions about the right to die frequently grabbing headlines.
Sanders hopes to further understandings of what it’s like to be disabled and to break down barriers and misperceptions. He also hopes seeing the show will spark discussion and reconnection among loved ones.
“I want [the audience] to go out thinking, ‘Shit I’m going to die one of these days and I’d better make sure that my loved one knows what I want.’”
Representatives from the Farewell Foundation for the Right to Die, the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition of B.C. and the artists will participate in question and answer sessions after performances on March 13 and 18.
Whose Life Is It Anyway?
March 11 to 22 at the Historic Theatre at the Cultch, 1895 Venables St.
Tickets and info: thecultch.com.
