BRIGHTON FRINGE REVIEW: ‘Deadnamed’
Before we’re allowed into the tiny tent that is Rotunda Pip, in Regency Square, Brighton, we’re asked to leave a message on a post-it about the deceased whose funeral we are about to attend. As the lights come up – bright red – a man sits up in the coffin and says hello. This is […]
Before we’re allowed into the tiny tent that is Rotunda Pip, in Regency Square, Brighton, we’re asked to leave a message on a post-it about the deceased whose funeral we are about to attend.
As the lights come up – bright red – a man sits up in the coffin and says hello. This is how you know that transgender actor/comedian Dian Cathal has a dark treat in store for you.
Deadnaming, if you didn’t know, is the inappropriate using of a trans person’s birth name and you shouldn’t do it. We are at Lily’s funeral – Lily being the male character’s deadname.
By way of Irish folklore and myth, our hero, as yet with no new male name, tells graphic stories that relate absolutely to gender reassignment, identity and sense of being.
When asked how Lily’s mother reacted to finding out her daughter was now a trans man, we get a long exposition of the mother’s anger, bewilderment and yes, hatred- wishing her daughter was dead alongside her name.
We get tales of the changeling child, of being left-handed, pf fairy circles and more.
It’s a stunning, deeply felt, emotional journey he and we are taken on, and though it has a bundle of laughs, it also has heartache and genuine tears from Dian, who assures us his mother didn’t react that way.
And he’s not left-handed either. Fun fact – you’re 30 per cent more likely to be queer if you’re left-handed – or as the Latin says “sinister.”
It’s probably the best 40 minutes you’ll spend this Fringe – you can catch it till Saturday, 17 May. Tickets HERE
