Writer/director Jimmy Justice brings a new reimagining of Metamorphoses to The Cockpit this month, with a trans cast.
“Metamorphoses rips apart and remixes Ovid’s primal text to create a kaleidoscopic mish-mash of a show that is at turns horrific, hilarious and beautiful. The show is a radical, psychedelic, genre-bending odyssey that extrapolates on the transness that is at the core of this classic piece of mythology.”
Where: The Cockpit
When: 16 May – 1 Jun
Ticket link: https://www.thecockpit.org.uk/show/metamorphoses
This new adaptation of Metamorphoses is a radical, genre-bending version of Ovid’s work. Tell me more!
I’ve loved Greek myth since I was a kid and have always been super interested in stories of transformation – particularly around gender.
So as an adult when I revisited the original text for Metamorphoses I was confronted with a play that was crass, vulgar and mean spirited.
Nothing like how it read when I was younger. I felt compelled to honour the beauty within these myths I found as a child.
With this adaptation I want to rip apart and remix these stories to interrogate my relationship with them.
Sometimes the beauty is easily found and I can isolate it from the shit that surrounds it but sometimes the shit is too much.
I think it’s important to expose that shit to the light of day so that we as trans people can regain a true sense of ownership over the stories that have defined how people see us.
How important has it been to be part of The Cockpit’s Theatre Maker scheme?
The Cockpit have been instrumental in the life of Metamorphoses.
Their commitment to the support of new ideas that don’t fit the status quo has meant we have found a home for our kaleidoscopic genre-bending play.
There aren’t many venues left that are willing to programme such experimental theatre.
Why was it so important to tell these stories from a queer/trans perspective?
Trans people don’t always (if ever) get ownership over their own narrative.
We are left out of the conversation and talked about instead of talked with.
This play is performed, designed and conceptualised by Queer people. We set out to bypass the gatekept cis-theatre world and have achieved a production fuelled by the community it’s for.
That seems pretty important to me.
I can’t wait to see the result on stage! What do you want audiences to take away from this Metamorphoses?
A little flag. We’re going to give out little flags (only joking).
I want an audience member to walk in not knowing what they’re in for.
I don’t want to speak to the content (as that’s up to you to decide) but what I really want is audiences to leave knowing that trans people can make theatre using epic mythology that looks, sounds and feels like their own.
Image credit: Stephanie Sian Smith