IF I KNEW WHAT SAFETY FELT LIKE

“It was very strong, brave, insightful and revealing of Maya to give her totally honest view of her life. Sadness to feel dependent, frustrations at all the shortcommings both with the personal assistance and the outside world, the young person’s search for meaning and identity. Fragile balance on a thin thread. “

– Quote by person in audience at the reading

If I knew what safety felt is Mayas first play about her life with a physical disability, neuropsychiatric disability, and mental health issues. The play has been performed as a reading with live music at Unga Klara, the children and youth theatre of Kulturhuset Stockholm. This is Mayas and lead singer and singer-songwriter Albins words about the reading:

“When you look at disabilities, you only see one at a time, i.e. either mental illness or the physical disability, or the NPF diagnosis, etc. I want to show that a person’s identity is complex and has several dimensions that interact”, Maya Hultman.

It is important that plays about what it is like to live with norm-breaking functionality are written by people with their own experience of what is being told. In addition, “from the inside perspective” is not represented in a nuanced way. The play shows the fantastic possibilities but also challenges that exist with living with norm-breaking functionality and personal assistance.

“I grew up with Maya, lived under the same roof, and watched her go through every phase of her life. My role as a brother was to be able to convey her feelings and experiences through the music we created.” – Albin Hultman Karlsson, Maya’s brother.

Albin and his friends Emma, ​​Silas, Rasmus, and Nelly have arranged 7 songs that are planned to be played for the reading of the play in a mix of live and produced music. Of the 7 songs, 2 are self-written songs made by the young musicians.

When we wrote the song “Safety”, we wrote it with the aim of being directly connected to the play. The first line of the text If I knew what safety felt like is the English translation of the title of the play. The beginning of the second verse mirrors what Maya says at the end of the play. We wanted the music to enhance and reflect the feeling of the powerful meaning of the play.