As an artist, I believe it’s my moral duty to explore topics that are relevant to my lived experience – but I don’t want to be limited to those issues just because I no longer represent the idea of an ‘everyman’

I am a theatre-maker and performer. I am also a transgender woman with a classical acting training and background. Shakespeare played with gender all the time, but is there any chance of me being cast in a male or a female role in the future in a Shakespeare play, or any other production?



Last month, I was at the Marlborough theatre in Brighton, where I have been in residence as a guest artist of Pink Fringe: I’ve been provided with a bedroom, space to make a mess, and production and emotional support.



On my last night there was an event to celebrate the publishing of a new book - Brighton Trans*formed, which documents and interviews a group of transgender people from the city. Despite the warm crowd, many of those who shared their thoughts were visibly nervous. This was not a platform for professional speakers (though several of those who spoke were) but a community event. When asked why she had chosen to participate, one of the women said “If you are a trans woman then walking down the street becomes a political act. If you are given a platform to speak then I think as a trans person you must”.

It sounded to me like a call to arms. I had been on that stage earlier in the day rehearsing Language, a show that is at Camden People’s theatre’s Sprint festival this week and which is intended to be a manifesto punk performance. It’s a statement of intent and tells of my experience of coming out as a transgender woman and the shock of the loss of privilege, and the hostility and misogyny, that such a journey has provoked. This particular piece of work is intended to be confident and unapologetically political.

I do have a platform and, as an artist, I feel a strong duty of care to explore topics that are relevant to my lived experience. When I was younger, I worked as a lifeguard and was always really excited by the notion of a “duty of care” that meant even if I wasn’t at work I had a moral responsibility to rescue anyone I saw drowning (I never did). I apply this as a moral obligation to confront the issues that are important in my life through the work that I make, despite the difficulties of doing so.

But does that mean that from now on I only get to make work that communicates the inequality and misogyny that I now face as a woman, and the prejudice and violence that I experience as a transgender woman?

In our society we treat white, heterosexual, able-bodied men as the default human beings – any behaviour or trait that deviates from this is deemed to be “marked” and, as such, worthy of comment or distrust. It is why a news report will be sure to mention the religion, gender or ethnicity of a terror suspect and to debate the possibility that any of these elements are the cause of their violent actions. But if the identity of the suspect is white and male then it is not regarded as relevant information.

Now that I no longer represent this idea of the everyman, I realise the great privilege that I previously carried to be invisible in a neutral body. But can we only use neutral bodies in performance? Have I now become so “marked” as a trans person that I can only be a single issue voice? Does Hamlet need to be placed on a neutral un-marked body to work?

Kate Bornstein says that in order to sum up postmodernism all you need to acknowledge is that “the floor of one room can also be the ceiling of another”. People can represent many identities all at once and all of them may be true at the same time.

Bethany Black: Life as a transsexual comedian Read more

Because for me, this isn’t simply an issue about all-female productions, which companies like the Smooth Faced Gentlemen do so brilliantly, because even an all-female company isn’t necessarily gender-blind if the participants are still cisgendered (cisgender is a term used to describe somebody who does not identify as trans gender). We are in 2015 and it was only this year with Cucumber that a transgender woman, Bethany Black, played a transgender woman on UK television for the first time.

If I were to get an agent who puts me up for the next transgender role to come along, what happens if (as happened to a friend of mine) I am told I am not trans “enough” to fit the expectations of such a character portrayed on screen? Because the privilege of being “read” by strangers as the gender you identify as is one that often transgender women never achieve, and why should we?

I wanted to write this blog about my experiences of coming out in the theatre industry and the truth is that it is too early to write that story. I identify as female, I am using female pronouns and have changed my name. My family, bank statements and driving license now respect my new identity. But I have no idea what the future holds in my professional life.

I think I should play Hamlet now more than ever before.