Stage Review - The World Looks Different Sitting Down (Seattle Public Theater)

Stage Review - The World Looks Different Sitting Down
Presented By: Seattle Public Theater - Seattle, WA
Show Run: February 20 - March 01, 2026
Date Reviewed: Sunday, February 22, 2026 (Opening weekend)
Run Time: 75 minutes (no intermission)
Reviewed by: Sameer Arshad

Positivity has been a buzzword for a couple of generations now. It's become ubiquitous. You come across it in pop music, in self-help literature and it is splashed all over celebrity culture. The over-repetition has led to the concept of "toxic positivity", which happens when bland positivity itself isn't a source of actual hope and actually causes problems instead — shutting down conversations about accessibility and inclusion. What if hope is actually a function of acceptance and understanding from your community, in order for any inherent positivity to be allowed to play out in reality? This is one of the explored themes in Teal Sherer's autobiographical solo show, The World Looks Different Sitting Down, running at Seattle Public Theatre for one more weekend.

Teal is disabled and has used a wheelchair since the age of 14. She is now an established actor in the Seattle Theatre community and has starred in Hollywood movies and several web-series. But she doesn't want your take-away to be "Oh she's so inspiring". This is not that kind of show and we are not signing up for the "inspiring disabled person" trope here.

With her vibrant storytelling skills, Teal weaves a tapestry of her life, where we discover her childhood filled with vivacious wonder and boundless excitement. We learn about the circumstances behind how she became disabled and the experiences she went through to make her who she is today. Her sharp wit and her deliciously sarcastic sense of humor are always with her, helping her cope and stay hopeful, and in this story, they are also with us, as we learn and understand her perspective and life philosophy.

This is a story about perseverance, hope and finding love. But we're not leaning into a "despite the odds" angle here as an audience, which is quite refreshing to me. Instead, Teal invites us to make intriguing observations on the systems that exist around disabled people. From daily frustrations in navigating job interviews to trying to get help in a grocery store, while also navigating the dating world and trying to raise a family while disabled.

Teal shows us these moments of her life in flashback scenes, playing several characters across the years, demonstrating various ways disabled people like her are seen in society and how frustrating it can be to be primarily seen by others as someone to pity or someone that evokes feelings of sadness.

This is indeed a social problem that really does no one any favors. And Teal delves into this by giving us new directions to think about when it comes to disability. There are several theatrical elements that she uses in this play but my favorite one is her use of choreographed dance, in her wheelchair, to make her point.

Teal is a phenomenal dancer. She paints the space with her movements incorporating the speed and direction of her wheelchair, in several sublimely evocative dance sequences, that the audience really enjoyed. We learn of her years as a member of a dance ensemble that featured several wheelchair users and it all fits together in her attitude to life: why are we limiting ourselves to what human beings can actually do? When you limit your scope of what disabled people are capable of, you're limiting the scope of what everyone is capable of.

Diminishing people is an addictive habit that oversteps and overpaints every single time. And Teal wants us to cut that shit out.

This show blends humor, life-story, dance and social perspective in a very creative way that rewards the audience with Teal Sherer's own sense of wonder and excitement about humanity and this world we live in. It is a gift she has decided to share with us, and for that we should be absolutely honored.

The World Looks Different Sitting Down, written and performed by Teal Sherer, runs on stage at Seattle Public Theater through March 1. For more information, including ticket availability and sales, visit https://www.seattlepublictheater.org/.

Photo credit: Colin Madison