The opening scene of Francesca Martinez’s All of Us tests our prejudices.

All of Us
Dorfman, National Theatre, London

The opening scene of Francesca Martinez’s All of Us tests our prejudices. The plastic bucket chairs and discussion of feelings make clear that this is a therapy session of some kind, involving Jess – who, like Martinez herself, has cerebral palsy – and Rita (Lucy Briers), a soft-talking middle-class professional.

The trap is to take Jess as the patient seeking help. Which I almost did until a small warning voice that Martinez – an accomplished comedienne who prefers the term “wobbly” for her condition and campaigns against the equation of disability with victimhood – would be unlikely to impose on the protagonist of her first stage play such a cliché.

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