So there’s this party she’s having. It might be a funerary rite or a birthday celebration, depending on your perspective. Either way she’s wearing the dress, her first lippy, and she’s making a special meal. The flowers keep coming and the candles get blown out.
An international, inter-generational collaboration between two transgender writer/performers, UK legend Jo Clifford (The Gospel According to Jesus, Queen of Heaven) and local emerging artist Bayley Turner, Thirty Six explores the complex relationship gender diverse people have with aging, mortality, grief and growth.
“It still hasn’t hit me yet that this is happening,” says Turner. “Jo is such a trailblazer, she’s taught me so much about trust and sisterhood and our history, and I’ve been giving her a window into how Melbourne’s political literacy has made this one of the safest places in the world to be transgender – though obviously, not for all. It is a personal blessing and a career highlight to swap stories and get insight into each other’s creative processes.
Thirty-six is considered the other side of a trans woman’s life expectancy. If you make it to that milestone then you’ve survived this old wives’ tale that trans people – for a number of reasons – don’t make it to those older ages. It’s significant because that’s when other trans people look to you for guidance, as I look to Jo. I’m about to turn thirty-five and I wonder what the future holds for me once I’ve passed that milestone.”
Following the successful Australian premiere of The Gospel According to Jesus, Queen of Heaven at Theatreworks in 2022 (winner of the Green Room Award for Best Independent Production) and fortyfivedownstairs in 2023, Clifford and director Kitan Petkovski (The Inheritance) began discussing a follow up project with Turner.
I forget how long we’ve been sending drafts back and forth, from one end of the world to another. It’s been so joyous,” says Clifford. “I’ve been writing about trans issues since the nineties, and for a long time it was a lonely kind of thing to do. So what a joy to find in my own country and here in Melbourne such a gorgeous, rich, diverse and gifted trans/queer/non-binary community. Bayley says we’re creating a love song to our community: a love song made deeper and stronger by our encounters with death. A love song that needs to be heard now more than ever…”
“This show is such a tribute to the resilience and good humour of gender diverse people,” Turner concludes. “I hope after people see it they’re somewhat radicalised to get involved in the big picture of protecting trans lives, particularly trans people of colour and trans kids. We all deserve to expect more time than thirty-six years.”
21 January – 2 February 2025
