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tinyjude's review
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
sad
fast-paced
5.0
Wonderful play which I wish I had the pleasure to experience in person. I wish I could say more but I think in this case, quotes would just do more justice to the text that I could ever do, so spoilers ahead because I couldn't just not include such poignant words that many trans and gender-non conforming people might need to hear now (pls support this author as well if you felt like some quotes resonated with you. Let's support each other):
To lie and tell ourselves it is a choice when there are two things placed next to each other. As if something containing only two could ever be a choice. That is not a choice. That is rather jumping to which death you think may be less painful.
Man or woman. Or the cages made for man or woman. The person free from man or woman. Or the person in charge of capturing the person free from man or woman. Gender or violence? The last one was the same thing. (...) it is always those that are messy that are punished. (....) We are policing people before they even know the person they are.
There are two billions of people in this world and somehow we will decide two boxes to fit all these people in. As if fitting billions of people in two boxes could ever be comfortable. We will decide who you are before we know you, decide which box to place you in, and then not let you change even if we can tell it was the wrong box.
Two thousands years ago there were Gods that looked like me. And maybe you. Worshipped in their plurality.
It's not just that before colonisation gender non-conforming existed in different forms, it's that colonisation and race continue to completely affect how gender continues to be formed. (...) Black bodies have known what it means to be de-gendered, hyper-gendered, misgendered since the beginning of our slavery.
If I made more effort, stuffed more things into me, turned some things over me, chopped some parts up, would you start to believe me when I say I am hurting? (...) I wonder how many bodies have forced parts onto themselves in order to be seen as fixed, legitimate, so they no longer need to stop traffic.
As if trans is synonym for broken body.
It's knowing I was not born in the wrong body, rather born in the wrong world
Isolation is the best tactic of oppression. But I need you to open your eyes, your ears, your heart, and remember that we have been there too. You are not new, you are not the only one, the streets will make you feel like there is no one else, but remind yourseld of the lands before they were walked on
No one did anything
The rawness and honesty of all the painful hate crimes Travis and others had encountered. The newspapers articles which I loathed at the time but didn't know they were connected to Travis. The allegories with the burgers, boxes, gender, violence and the imagery of the past Gods holding Travis so gently. The scene of the last quote. The vow at the end...
I was appalled. Speechless. Sobbing. In some senses we are the same, and I too promise to hold you, touch you, love you, defend you, be there for you. We are not individuals. We are plurality. And there is strength in our plurality. I'm a mess but I cannot recommend this play enough. Watch it if you can, read it, hold it, cry with it, love it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia, Hate crime, Body shaming, Colonisation, Bullying, Violence, Religious bigotry, Racism, Physical abuse, Transphobia, and Sexual harassment
Moderate: Slavery and Police brutality
Minor: Deadnaming
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