Welcome to the waiting room to enter the realm of Transition*. You are the 11,174th player. Only 33 players have made it through Level One this month.
The waiting list to see the Gender Identity Clinic is now 5 years long. Patient for trans people is often an adjective and not a noun, the endurance of suffering without receiving treatment. Yet our systems primarily expect trans people to move through life as a patient – subjects to medical scrutiny and approval. What does a duration of 5 years really mean, and when does patience turn from virtue to verb?
Devised through drawing on lived experiences of interview participants and an all trans team, this show takes you on a journey navigating the healthcare system in the UK. It melds grim realities with the world of video games, searching for agency in waiting.
This is a work-in-progress showcase of performance material (around 45 minutes) that has been devised by the team, with an in-depth discussion session and Q&A after. The aim of this event is to gather feedback from the trans and gender-diverse community on the show’s relevance and presentation, as well as facilitate conversations on themes covered and the creation process. This will help the team develop the show in close connection with the trans community.
Content warnings: Discussions of gender dysphoria, transphobia, medical gatekeeping, mental health issues, some strong language
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This event is intended for dialogue with trans* and queer audiences, we are also doing a showcase on 6 Aug at Bread and Roses Theatre which is open to all, and has a full theatre lighting system! https://www.breadandrosestheatre.co.uk/whats-on.html
Tickets are Pay What You Can (recommended donation £5), but if you have a little more means we would appreciate any extra cash, as we have little funding and are working voluntarily.
Please book a space in advance as we have limited capacity and need to estimate attendance numbers.
Check out our Trans Pride Merch: burningattic.etsy.com
Find out more on Instagram: @burning.attic
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CREATIVE TEAM
Devised by:
Alex Sheppard (he/him), Andy Bodrenkov (they/them), Florian Lim (they/them), J Frank (he/they), Julian H (he/him), Lisa Maeda (they/them), Rae Harm (he/him)
Performers: Alex Sheppard, J Frank, Lisa Maeda
Producer: Florian Lim
Technical and Graphic Designer: Andy Bodrenkov
Theory and Dramaturgy: Julian H
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ABOUT BURNING ATTIC
Burning Attic is a newly founded collective devising investigative theatre created from engagement with the lived experiences of people under-represented in theatre, particularly drawing from interviews as research and source material. As a collective mainly comprised of queer, migrant, and Global Majority members, we see theatre and live performance as a means of intervening in reality, where artistic representation has the power to reshape understanding and reconfigure mainstream paradigms. We seek to respond to the spectacle of politics in our multimedia world through interdisciplinary creative processes, defying hierarchies between art and experience.