24 – 25 May
In one way the children’s fairy story by Carlo Collodi is made to measure as a metaphor for not merely transitioning but also a kind of fluidity in which multiple physical forms and personalities are possible. The wooden puppet of the story promises a fairy he will become a real boy and has adventures in which he becomes other things, including a donkey. Rosana Cade and Ivor MacAskill have fashioned a piece of polemical theatre based on aspects of the original (not the Disney) fairy tale, combined with other raw material from their own story as a gay couple, one of whom is undergoing gender transitioning.
The show involves quite a complex piece of stagecraft which drafts in a lot of video, both recorded and live streamed from different parts of the stage. In the beginning trees are enlightened as to their fate as this or that wooden object with one destined to be a puppet. Some fun is had with varying visual perspectives giving the optical illusion of different sizes of characters on stage who, on the screen, are apparently able to interact. This led me to rely more on the screened action rather than the live performances, which is a bit unfortunate.
For me the more interesting part of the autobiographical story is how a loving lesbian relationship transforms itself into a heterosexual relationship as a result of one half transitioning their gender. The emotional change is briefly mentioned at the start of the show when Rosana reveals she was turned on by their age difference at the beginning of the relationship and now has the transitioning doing something similar. That emotional journey might have engaged me more, in a way that the mechanics of transitioning and discussion around social constructs did not. Nevertheless it is a touching and witty show – the binary world comes in for a bit of a dig – and last night’s audience, most of who seemed to be already on board with its message, found a lot to laugh at.
Sex, of course, raises its tousled head and Pinocchio/Ivor is seen comically getting to grips with the multiplicity of wooden off-shoots that offer novel possibilities of self-gratification.
The show which has clearly been the result of much thought and creative input from musicians, design and lighting is a paean to diversity, or as it puts it, to “The glorious lives being lived at the horizon of your perception.”
★★★☆☆ Graham Wyles, 25 May, 2024
Photos: Manuel Vason and Tiu Makkonen
