Equity tells the Canary that right-wing backlash to Hunchback of Notre Dame concerns is “ridiculous”

A production of a famous play has received backlash from an actors union for refusing to be inclusive. A new concert style production of the classic The Hunchback of Notre Dame is currently underway at the Prince Edward Theatre in London. It includes musical numbers from the hit Disney film, which is it also loosely based on.

The show, an adaptation of the Victor Hugo book, is about Quasimodo, a physically disabled bell ringer who is shunned, mocked, and called a monster by townspeople. Nowadays, it is recognised that Quasimodo is disabled, so the show has received backlash for casting a nondisabled actor, Ben Joyce in the role.

Actors’ union’s anger over The Hunchback of Notre Dame

Actors’ union Equity have come out against the decision to cast a non-disabled actor as one of the most famous disabled characters, saying in a statement:

Equity’s policy is to support the casting of a deaf or disabled artist in deaf or disabled character roles. This should be supported by a fair and accessible audition process, and paired with targeted outreach to those artists who have lived experience of the specific disability, impairment, health condition or similar being portrayed.

The union carried on:

The decision not to cast a physically disabled actor in the title role of The Hunchback of Notre Dame in Concert goes against these principles.

Equity said they reached out to Jack Maple Productions, who are producing The Hunchback of Notre Dame, in order to try and better understand why this decision was reached.

The Canary has been informed that the production is said to have extended the casting call for the role, meaning they did have some deaf, disabled and neurodivergent people apply. However, they still decided to choose a nondisabled main actor. A significant reason for this is believed to be that it’s a large speaking role, which doesn’t explain why the actor couldn’t be disabled.

Natalie Amber, Chair of Equity’s Deaf and Disabled committee, told The Canary, “They’re sugarcoating the character”

What the show actually entails

Equity were informed that disabled people were involved in the production and that there would be a BSL element incorporated into the show. In Hugo’s original novel, Quasimodo became deaf due to the loudness of the bells that he lived in close proximity to all his life.

However, it has since emerged that the BSL element is actually a second actor Oliver Hewing, who is deaf and who also appears alongside Joyce and bizarrely signs just Quasimodo’s lines in The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

Natalie said “it literally felt like a tick box”.

She told the Canary:

They weren’t integrated at all, the two actors weren’t really linked to each other, which shows the director had no idea what they were doing. If done right Oliver could’ve portrayed Ben’s inner turmoil, but there wasn’t any, he didn’t looked pained or in anguish at any point because he didn’t have that lived experience to drill into.

Natalie also said that this could’ve been a real opportunity to relate Quasimodo’s situation back to the way disabled people are treated now, by society and those in power:

They could have used this narrative to really question how we perceive disabled people now and they could’ve done press that was focused around that. But they haven’t because they’ve no nuanced understanding of what it’s like to be living as a disabled person now.

Concerns over The Hunchback of Notre Dame branded as “woke” by right-wing rags

The backlash over The Hunchback of Notre Dame has of course been met with derision by many online, including the right-wing press, who saw it as a free for all to be ableist shitbags. The Scottish Daily Express said:

Woke actors’ union calls for real hunchback to play the Hunchback of Notre Dame

The rag also called Quasimodo “a tragic hero”: pity porn and ableism all in one. While the Sun felt the need to reprint the words of who they called an “anti woke activist” (read: dickhead) Graham Linehan calling it Equity “fucking idiots”. Excellent pearls of wisdom from the most divorced man ever.

Responding to the right-wing media’s reaction, Natalie told the Canary:

The right-wing media hates disabled people anyway, but it’s ridiculous and another example of the lack of understanding or acknowledging the deaf disabled and neurodivergent community.

Disabled characters should be played by disabled actors, end of

The casting of non-disabled actors as disabled characters is by no means something that’s unique to this show. More often than not, on the rare occasion you’ll see a disabled character on TV or in film they’ll be portrayed by non-disabled people.

While disability representation is getting better, it’s still very low. A Ruderman Family Foundation Study found that just 3.9% of all characters across 350 of the top scripted TV shows from 2016-2023 had a disability, and just 21% of those disabled characters were actually played by a disabled actor.

The right-wing rags might be calling Equity’s response to The Hunchback of Notre Dame woke. However, it’s just a fact that disabled roles can never be played compassionately and knowledgably unless they are played by disabled actors.

Anything else is a caricature – though unfortunately that’s what many viewers are completely fine with watching.

Featured image via the Canary