January 30, 2024 - 2:00pm
Acting has historically been a profession where performers are, somewhat ironically, free to be themselves. Yet playwright Charlie Josephine is determined to further increase LGBTQ+ representation in the theatre. The non-binary identifying female writer has sought to do this in her new play Cowbois, which she says aims to “flip the Hollywood version of cowboys that we think about”.
With so few dramatic frontiers left to conquer, it must be tough for those looking to shake up the boards. But Cowbois has come to the Royal Court Theatre some 30 years after the release of the classic surrealist lesbian film Even Cowgirls Get The Blues, and 20 years after the Oscar-nominated, critically acclaimed Brokeback Mountain. Gay cowboys are not exactly new.
It’s hard to not reflect on the past work of the playwright and observe that she is mining a somewhat narrow and personal seam. Unusually, she has offered thanks to trans lobby groups All About Trans and Gendered Intelligence for their “collaboration and support” for her work. Previous plays include I, Joan, which featured a non-binary Joan of Arc at Shakespeare’s Globe and One of Them Ones, about “two siblings living in a rural community, trying to get their heads around gender identity”. And with all the plodding predictability of an audience shouting “he’s behind you” to a panto dame, Cowbois has a “trans-masculine bandit named Jack” as the romantic lead. Presumably, this is what method acting pioneer Konstantin Stanislavski was warning against when he wrote: “Love art in yourself, and not yourself in art.”
But the problem is far wider than the work of one repetitive playwright. Today, a lazy and artless obsession with identity politics has boxed theatre in. In London alone last year there was a trans Frankenstein at Camden People’s Theatre; No ID, a play about living in Britain as a black, transgender immigrant at the Royal Court; and Eddie Izzard’s much-vaunted “one-woman” production of Great Expectations.
As actor James Dreyfus told me, “the arts are already fully ‘inclusive’.” Commenting on the drive for non-binary representation, he added:
From the prescriptive casting notes which stipulate that actors should share the characteristics of the characters they play, to Arts Council England funding which seems geared toward the number of diversity tick boxes met, quality is being quashed in theatre. Under these conditions, actors, directors and playwrights of talent are at risk of being pushed off stage.
But there is surely nothing more establishment, nor more mainstream, than plays which claim to centre the marginalised for the entertainment of London theatregoers. At least now heterosexual couples can content themselves that they’ve still got an edge, and that they’ve done their bit for inclusion.
Theatre is built from artifice and the polite suspension of disbelief. But, in 2024, it is stretching credulity to the limit for playwrights to pretend that LGBTQ+ voices aren’t routinely heard in auditoriums. Cowbois and the slew of similar plays are pushing at an open saloon door.
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SubscribeI bet the audience will be [half-]full of people doing jazz hands and clicking their fingers instead of clapping. I mean nobody would clap at this repetitive guff.
And high. You’d have to be in order to find this stuff funny.
Lots of missed opportunities for cowboy related puns in this snooze-fest of an article:
“funding that demands the branding of a diversity mark on every project…”
“Spurred on by an obsession with trans representation, last year alone saw London stages rustling in dozens of trans productions…”
“But there is surely no bigger rodeo in town than shows that claim to centre the marginalised…”
Non-binary leading characters are nothing new.
Already back in 1971, we had ‘Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde’
Yet playwright Charlie Josephine is determined to further increase LGBTQ+ representation in the theatre. Indeed, one of the biggest issues with theater is the lack of gay people. Said no one who has ever been around theater.
The non-binary identifying female writer has sought to do this The bolded terms are in fundamental conflict. As interesting as this torturing of the language is, humans come in binary form and if the writer is female, the only thing she’s “non” is male.
You have to understand that there’s male, female, and emale, which is like being male but faster and it doesn’t require a stamp.
This is an underrated pun.
Quality pun. Gold star.
All this special focus on LBGQT inclusion has turned them into orthopedics. it’s like when a handicapped child scribbles something on a piece of paper and the adults around them have to say what a great job they did. There is simply nothing interesting about LBGQT stuff any more. Once it became a ham-fisted political cause it lost its aestheticism and became a gravy-train for the ugly and stupid.
The aggressive forced-applause is no longer part of my makeup. Gays need MORE rejection.
It’s too easy to be gay today. It’s time to go back to VERY reluctant tolerance.
As a gay man I completely agree; suburban-beige is so boring.
http://www.thebasecreates.co.uk
No.
I’d like to see a transgender reality show where the main character cuts off his testicles.
I understand that the actor playing the main character will be disposable, but Charlie Josephine is confident that finding the next one will not be difficult.
Boooorringggg … transgressive humor is cheap and easy. No creativity …
These days conservatism is the new transgression.
Nothing transgressive about it. All this ‘queer’ ‘non-binary’ etc bullshit is actively promoted by the mainstream media, universities, governments and other such parasitic entities, with a Stalinesque insistence on unconditional acceptance of its underlying, incoherent ‘ideology’. Common sense and straight talk are what are transgressive nowadays.
“But being ‘non-binary’ elicits nothing more than a nod and a shrug. No persecution, no hatred, no alienation.”
It gets a sneer from me.
It gets a lip snarl from me. I have been trying hard not to, but I now veer from a yawn to repulsion. Its like becoming allergic to what was once a fairly benign substance to having been exposed and encased in the stuff I am now ‘sick’ from (of) it. I am pleaded with someone up above to please take this stuff away…..free up some ‘air’ space please….I’m suffocating.
On further reflection, I agree. Well said.
Perhaps it is time these queers faced up to the fact that they and their lifestyles are just not as fascinating as they like to believe. It’s no mystery that they’re drawn to the dramatic arts. Every queer (non-binary, whatever) is an exhibitionist at heart. Just look at the Pride marches (if you dare).
My gag reflex can only be somewhat suppressed.
I don’t go to the theatre much. I will never go to a “queer” production. I emphatically dislike gayromcoms, and won’t go to those. Probably 80% of the public agrees with me – we tolerate the alphabetters, but turn our eyes and work on our gag reflex at the aggressive PDA that seems a requisite part of gay relationships – the need to “discomfort the bourgeois” is the main motivation for many on the gay side. So such theatre will never do well. Fine by me.
Non-binary. Just so silly! Can’t we just use the term narcissist? That’s a more accurate term for these outrageously self-involved people who think the rest of us should care. This is not about inclusion. It’s about ridiculous made up divisions between people.