Two of the most innovative, powerful and moving shows I have ever seen, this Edinburgh Fringe, were created by trans women. Each play features theater makers who are at the cutting edge of theater practice, pushing ideas and performances into bold, uncharted territory. Both cite texts (Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Germaine Greer’s essay “Why Sex Change is a Lie”). Both take the viewer into a trance experience and are exhilarating and wild rides.
Cruel Britannia: After Frankenstein
★★★★1/2
They call us Freaks, Franks. Freaks!
Cruel Britannia: After Frankenstein, written and starring Kristen Smith, is a reinterpretation of Mary Shelley’s novel. Smith uses this text to take us on a gothic journey from the drugs, clubs, and toxic masculinity of ’80s London to recent gender reassignment surgery. Using Frankenstein’s monster as a metaphor for the fear, loathing, and rejection (and internalized transphobia) experienced as trans women, they transform from tough alpha male Frank to fragile and sensitive Ruby. to witness.
Smith’s portrayal of south London wide-boy Frank is entirely convincing. As they strut around the stage in sharp suits, ’80s acid house music plays, they’re dangerous and intimidating with their steely stares, alpha swagger, harsh south London accents and banter. The smell of money. my money. I stuck my finger in the pie. everywhere. I like to scrap a little bit on the weekends. You have to get something out of your system. ” Smith’s writing and performance burst with attitude and smoldering aggression.
Ruby, in contrast, is more vulnerable and unsure of herself. “For the next five hours we’ll be handing out tickets. It’ll be 50p. At coat check. It’s a life of magical, wonderful moments, but here they don’t look at me funny. ‘At times, her character seems ghostly – as if she is struggling to exist. She is like a shadow. It’s a wisp of smoke that has inherited the power of Frank’s internal organs.
The script changes from Frank’s experiences to Ruby’s. Eventually, Frank’s drug addiction worsens, and Ruby becomes homeless and sells her body, wearing the stigma and shame of Frankenstein’s monster like a cloak. But just like Frankenstein’s monster, there’s a moment of connection that overcomes her. The final scene, a perfect combination of Frankenstein’s monster and Smith’s real-life experiences, is absolutely thrilling.
After Frankenstein has been expertly directed by Cohan of Blank Space Productions and has been commissioned to perform at Arts Center Melbourne in November this year. This Edinburgh Fringe performance is a warm-up for the big professional season and a chance for Edinburgh audiences to witness the birth of some great theater work.
The production isn’t without its flaws – Smith needs to do more work developing Ruby’s character – she’s a bit weak and ill-defined compared to Frank, and it’s hard to see who Smith is playing. Confusing at times, but in need of a little more character work and polish, this has all the makings of a compelling play. It’s the type of work that stays with you long after you leave the theater.
Frankenstein’s last run in Cruel Britannia: Space on the Mile was on August 17th. A tour to Melbourne is scheduled for November 2024.
ugly sisters
★★★★
The day female eunuchs were announced in America, someone in a fluttering curtain ran up to me and grabbed my hand. “Thank you so much for all you do for us girls.” I should have said, “You’re a man.” The female eunuch did nothing to you. It’s infuriating.
Thus begins “The Ugly Sisters,” Germaine Greer’s 1989 essay “Why Gender Reassignment is a Lie,” an absurdist examination of the Ugly pamphlet cited above. Developed and performed by award-winning duo Laurie Ward and Charlie Cowgill, the increasingly bizarre piece of performance art centers around Greer’s encounters with trans women.
At the beginning, Cowgill gives a speech dressed as Greer, while Ward dresses up as a trans woman in bizarre attire: green taffeta, a pink balaclava, nipple tassels, a blonde wig, and oversized plastic lips. I’m dressed up. She chased Greer across the stage with a leaf blower, knocked him to the ground, encouraged the audience to come on stage and sprinkle dirt on Greer, and then delivered a bizarre eulogy.
This hallucinatory performance art breaks new ground in queer theater production, pushing audiences into all sorts of uncomfortable places and challenging us to abandon all previous notions of what theater and gender should be. I invite you. Greer is killed, buried, and resurrected. She engages in power struggles with trans women, each having their turn to gain the upper hand, before reconciling in a sensual and revelatory finale.
Read: Festival reviews: YOAH, Apricity, Afrik en Cirque, Ten Thousand Hours, Edinburgh Festival Fringe
Ward and Cowgill’s company, piss/CARNATION, won the Fringe First Award last year for 52 Monologues for Young Transsexuals, cementing Ugly Sisters as a playwright to watch. Their approach to theater production is bold, fresh and completely fearless. This groundbreaking show challenges viewers to step outside the gender binary, ushering in a brave new world of agency and power for transgender people. It’s also a confident rejection of feminist transphobia.
The Ugly Sisters will run at the Underbelly Cowgate until August 25th.
