We sat down with Tamm Reynolds to discuss their latest show, Shooting From Below, playing at the Southbank Centre Thu 9 Apr – Sat 11 Apr 2026. Tickets here.
What did reclaiming authorship over performance traditions imposed on dwarf bodies mean for you in making Shooting From Below?
The traditions are still imposed now. I still don’t know if I have reclaimed authorship but I feel proud of my approach. It was a painful show to research and make because the history is dark and absurd. This informed my approach. I had to meet the profane obscenities people like me were (and are) forced or coerced into with an earnest curiosity laced with a sick and smart sense of humour. I was told to ignore the bullies in school, to ignore the people who film me or shout abuse at me in the street. Now I’ve made a sparkly and hilarious show where the dark truth about humanity’s desire to dehumanise is impossible to ignore…
When rage fuels the work, how do you decide when it should combust and when it should stay sharply controlled?
It’s a learning curve and continues to be. Sometimes I end up mentally not so well and it takes me a moment to notice. My responsible rage barometer is often faulty. I celebrate messy emotions however I no longer revel in rumination. Working with collaborators who have similar (but not the same) lived experiences helps give me an outside eye as well as having someone there who shares the rage enough to ensure it’s compassionately centered. Working with honest caring shitbags and a ton of editing is the key.
What do imagined power reversals reveal about the hierarchies audiences usually take for granted?
Most people forget how inaccessible the world is for many of us. The general non-disabled public have been manipulated into believing it’s been made for them too. The power lies in the body and the mind. We are all going to become disabled or die before receiving the privilege. Hierarchies turn on their head, squirm in their seat when they encounter the abnormal. To be disabled is to defy norms by choice or by force.
I am keen on showing disabled people or anyone living a discrimination-filled life that we aren’t powerless. We have been subverting normative ways of existing our whole lives, we can exploit the exploiters. They don’t know what we are actually capable of. Society underestimates the pitiful. Weaponising disability is not (always) hot but weaponising ableism is reclamation of power. In a crowd, I can stomp my stilettos on people’s feet and slip out of sight before they spot me…
How do drag, musical theatre and live art help you turn spectacle into a tool rather than a trap?
Oh the costumes! The lighting! The timing! The avant gardeness of it all! I think drag and theatre and live art help me make it fun and interesting for myself, which then in turn shows up on stage. Maybe it’s still a trap! Who knows? I think I have control but the whole show explores and demonstrates the strength of the ableist gaze. It holds such a power over me that I’ve spent years making a whole show about it. I’ll make more. I think the whole thing is a trap so I may as well furnish the place.
Why is punching upwards through satire more effective for you than pursuing “positive” representation alone?
The only positive representation is realistic representation. The world is a very dark place and for many of us always has been. It’s impossible for me to shine a light on my life without shadows. The premise of the show is that Midgitte has something quite politically serious to apologise for. Her story up to this point is an attempt to justify her behaviour or at least to rationalise it. Her awful actions and the terrible treatment she’s experienced is based on real life world (and personal) history. Making a delusional dwarf drag queen the villain (or is she?) is a way to give a heart and a ha-ha for the audience to cling to.
If Midgittes designed the world, what do you think would most disturb non-dwarf audiences watching this show?
How many times they’d bump their head, how much adult onset arthritis they’d develop in their 20s, how cold their shins and forearms and ankles are because their clothes don’t fit, how much effort it takes to stand up or sit down, how much space they take up, how often they’d get ignored, deprioritised, met with negativity…unless we were into that sort of thing. How much they’d get ridiculed in popular media, rented out for parties, photographed against their will, exploited for their height. The only time they’d be considered is as self-moving step-ladders.