Transcript from Radio Interview that took place on BBC Radio Merseyside, Friday 31 January 2014. Presenter Tony Snell interviewing Kiruna Stamell and Gareth Berliner about their show ‘One of Us Will Die’ on at St Helens Citadel on Friday 7 February 2014.

Tony Snell: Now, what attracts you to go and see a play that’s on at the theatre?

Good reviews? A particular cast? Or maybe your friends have seen it and said “You’ve gotta’ go and see this!!!”

What about the title? Well I can definitely tell you if you fancy seeing One of us Will Die which comes to St Helens on next Friday night. If you just looked at the title you’d think “Hmmm, maybe that’s not a Friday night thing for me.”

Well it’s a play with a difference as the leading lady has dwarfism and the leading man has crohn’s disease.

Now they’re husband and wife and the play, it exposes with a lot of humour the hidden discrimination that faces people who have a disability in the community.

And, it talks about love and life and it’s in association with DaDaFest, the disability arts organisation based here in Liverpool.

And it sounds really funny! And it’s one I’ll make the effort to see, I really will! The performers certainly aren’t afraid to laugh and joke about their own disabilities. This is how we got on…

Gareth Berliner: The show pretty much deals with our relationship, how we met and also people’s opinions out on the street about relationships but also about us as a couple, I guess, because people make certain assumptions. Kiruna has dwarfism so she’s considerably shorter than me…

TS: And what about you Gareth?

GB: I’m of average height. But fortunately Kiruna was open to me and overlooked that…

Kiruna Stamell: I’m very open minded.

GB: ...with some difficulty! *laughs*

TS: So you have dwarfism and overlook something?

KS: Oh look, I can multitask…

GB: Yeah she’s wonderfully open…

KS: I have many talents, many talents.

TS: You know when you do interviews and people talk about dwarfism, everybody gets a little bit twitchy and the eggshells come out and we start dancing on them. What do we say? Do we say dwarfism? We went through this vertically challenged thing… What do we actually say?

KS: I just say, personally, dwarfism… Just because I think there’s a lot of stigma around dwarfism so I try to avoid particularly in a radio situation where you know the voice is going out there to an audience that I can’t read. I always think that it’s kind of handy to remind people that I am a person because it’s horrible to say but I would actually admit that some of the worst discrimination that I get on the street is de-humanising.

TS: And is this from a certain section of society or are older people worse than younger people or what?

KS: I would say, interestingly enough, it’s people that either at the high end, you know or the other end that have a sense of entitlement, that somehow you’re born into a position. So that they feel that they can then, you know, discriminate because everybody has their place. I find people that believe in a world that’s a bit more transient tend to be a bit more open minded and that they don’t pigeon-hole you so much.

TS: Yeah, course, and then when somebody like me has a chat with you and then throws a quip in about I know you have dwarfism but you came up with a line saying overlooked, I’m looking for a comedy line in that. Is that, is that offensive to you…

KS: *sarcastically* Oh yeah, I’m really angry at you.

GB: *laughs*

TS: I thought you sounded really offended there but…

KS: Ahhhh I actually can’t continue anymore…*sarcastically*

GB: She’s going to… she might walk out!

KS: It’s lucky you’ve padded the walls!

TS: The thing is that’s an icebreaker though, isn’t it? Straight away?

KS: Well I think it’s important because it informs so much of what the audience is kind of going to bring into the room. You know like, I’ve got dwarfism it doesn’t mean I’m heavily into mining! You know, which if you saw Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs that’s what you might think.

TS: *laughs* I’m disappointed, d’you know what, I had a whole list of mining questions and…

GB: I was hoping there was going to be gold in this marriage, and diamonds

KS: Yeah, we did meet at the end of a rainbow

GB: *Laughs*

TS: Can we sing ‘hi-ho’ at the end of it as well or …

KS & GB: Too far, Tony, you’ve gone too far.

TS: Well, I didn’t know where the line was, but now I know where the line is…and everybody’s happy. Well, this show, it deals with your disabilities and I know you two, in the real world, to get through this it can be tough sometimes, but you’ve got to laugh at this as well, haven’t you?

GB: I’ve previously done shows relating to my health, because I have some health issues, which we talk about a little bit and touch on in the show, yeah but I think it’s really important that both of us are aware of our politics on a disability level and I think we do some stuff to demystify it within the show and to highlight a few points historically about disability, dwarfism, all kinds of disability.

KS: But it’s also really universal, because here we are in a relationship and we both talk about past relationships in the show, and we’ve got a kind of healthy cynicism I like to think that we bring to it as well, like it’s not just twee. It can actually get quite dark, but there’s a lot of shared experience that the audience can really relate to, so I think once they get over the visual difference, they start to really see that I can really connect to the themes and the ideas that are coming up in this. And have a laugh as well, I mean, everybody poo’s! We talk about poo at one point…

TS: *laughs* too far, you’ve gone too far. No, I’m sorry – You’ve crossed the line. You have a line, I have a line….

KS: *laughs* sorry! Yeah, you know, we talk very much about the real world and what was that…I always forget…George and…

GB: Ah yes, when my Dad listened to some of the double act stuff it reminded him of George and Gracie Burns.

TS: Oh, right. I was thinking of George and Zippy there for a second.

KS & GB: *laugh*

GB: Classic double act, you’re not wrong.

TS: Completely different double act there. I was thinking, where’s this going. Anyway, well listen, you’re on in St Helens and its One Of Us Will Die, and when can we see you?

GB: It’s at half past seven, on the 7th February at the Citadel, St Helens.

TS: Great to talk to you both, thanks for being so open with us, and at least we found our lines that we didn’t cross, early in the interview, everybody’s happy!

*all laugh

GB: Thanks very much Tony.

TS: Thanks very much guys.

KS: Cheers

GB: Take care, bye.

*back to studio/ live*

TS: They were lovely, they really were.