This week, 13-19 November, is Transgender Awareness Week, in which trans people and their allies advocate around the stories and experiences of trans lives, in the run-up to Transgender Day of Remembrance on Sunday 20 November, which memorialises victims of transphobic violence.
Below is a selection of plays and anthologies by or featuring trans writers, which are available to borrow for free from our Theatre Library in Hull’s Old Town. We are always looking to expand our collection, so if you have any recommendations please do get in touch with literary manager, Matthew May.
As always, we extend our love and solidarity to trans people across the world.
Joan / Bullish by Leo Skilbeck
In Bullish, ancient mythology meets modern gender negotiation. Inspired by Ovid’s Minotaur, a gender fierce ensemble of hopers and renegades try to pass, pack and blag their way out of the labyrinth.
Joan is an earthy story of courage, conviction and hope, with Joan of Arc retold as a modern gender warrior. A fearless solo play with uproarious songs about what it means to stand out, stand up and stand alone.
Leo penned a song for our 2021 cabaret, we used to be closer than this, and is co-directing our 2023 project, Modest.
Since U Been Gone by Tabby Lamb
Brought to life with storytelling, an original pop music score, and way too many America’s Next Top Model references, Since U Been Gone is a moving and powerful autobiographical account about childhood co-stars, teenage rebellion, growing up queer in the mid-noughties, and finding yourself while losing a friend, by Middle Child associate writer, Tabby Lamb.
A Generous Lover / Boy in a Dress by Lauren John Joseph
A Generous Lover is the true and very queer tale of one soul’s journey through the wasteland of mental illness to deliver their lost love.
Boy in a Dress follows the life story of Lauren John Joseph: a trans, fallen Catholic, ex-fashion model from the wrong side of the tracks.
Monlogues for ‘Others’ by Charlie Josephine
This book is for the ‘others’. For anyone who’s ever felt othered. For us lot. Who deserve celebration and opportunity. Each one is written with love, with the actor in mind. I hope they make your body feel fizzy, I hope they get you all the jobs, I hope your flowers bloom.
Global Queer Plays
A unique anthology bringing together stories of queer life from international playwrights, these seven plays showcase the dazzling multiplicity of queer narratives across the globe: the absurd, the challenging, and the joyful.
Book of Queer Monologues, edited by Scottee
The first collection of its kind, The Book of Queer Monologues chronicles over one hundred years of queer and trans performance. Combining stage plays with spoken word and performance art, this anthology features over forty extracts from some of the most exciting stage works in the English-speaking world.
Burgerz by Travis Alabanza
Hurled words. Thrown objects. Dodged burgers. A burger was thrown at Travis Alabanza on Waterloo Bridge in 2016. From this experience they have created a poetic, passionate performance piece based around the ‘burger’: the texture, and taste of being trans. Their experiences include verbal abuse, ostracisation and being thrown out of a Top Shop changing room. The piece also explores the black trans experience.
Overflow by Travis Alabanza
Cornered into a flooding toilet cubicle and determined not to be rescued again, Rosie distracts herself with memories of bathroom encounters. Drunken heart-to-hearts by dirty sinks, friendships forged in front of crowded mirrors, and hiding together from trouble. But with her panic rising and no help on its way, can she keep her head above water? Overflow is a hilarious and devastating tour of women’s bathrooms, who is allowed in and who is kept out.
