PRICK HIM AND I BLEED.
“It moved me to tears as it reflected my personal story. I didn't realise how similar my experiences have been to others in my position. It was liberating.”
— Audience member and sibling.
Susan’s first script for an adult audience, Prick Him and I Bleed is a verbatim piece composed from interviews with 40 adult siblings of people with a learning disability and/or autism. A raw, funny and unflinchingly honest play giving voice to an experience that often has little space to breathe. The script made it to the penultimate round of the Verity Bargate Award 2024, one of just 200 from 1700 scripts that achieved a full read through by the team at Soho Theatre.
“The reading was powerfully honest, revealing of the truths, emotionally exhausting, humorous in parts, touching. It is still with me a week later. My niece said she has never heard her life spoken of like this before. It made her feel calm and heard.”
— Audience member and sibling.
Prick Him and I Bleed will be the first in a trilogy of original works exploring the lived reality of disability and autism across the whole family. Susan has been awarded a further Arts Council England Project Grant to produce the second script, of which research begins with Mind the Gap theatre company in September 2025.
Special thanks go to project partners Katy Taylor CEO Queen’s Hall Arts Centre, Clare Kassa CEO of Sibs and Arts Council England.
Performed reading. Queen’s Hall Arts Centre Hexham, 2022.
Written and produced by Susan Betts
Director: Matt Woodhead
Lighting Design: Scoon Ferguson
Videographer: Rajnish Madaan
Cast: Paul Beech, Christina Berriman Dawson, Luke Grant & Helen Monk
“My personal and professional worlds collided I think during that reading. It was powerful. It was emotive. I dabbed a few tears. Not only could I hear my words, but even words that I hadn’t shared were being spoken back to me. Those were my words too. I think giving siblings the opportunity to hear their words, to hear the words of others, is so powerful.”
— Clare Kassa. CEO Sibs and sibling interviewee.
Are you a sibling of a disabled person? Or looking to support a sibling?
Sibs exists to support people who grow up with or have grown up with a disabled sibling. It is the only UK charity representing the needs of over half a million young siblings and over one and a half million adult siblings. Explore their work and extensive range of resources at sibs.org.uk.