S/he/it Happens °Å¸˜

A one-person performance about being stuck between the gender binary…

 

Squeezing into our seats at Etcetera Theatre, an above-the-pub-shaped theatre in Camden, London, we wait expectantly for one-person, gender-messing play S/he/it Happens to begin. 

 

In front of us, there's a small stage, a desk and a few simple props — and then the lights go down… 

 

"S/he/it Happens was born out of my desire to make a solo comedy about gender," says performer, director, and star of the show, Miranda Porter. 

 

"I began with make-up, but a dozen broken lipsticks later, I moved onto fashion and clothes. Unintentionally, I kept coming back to a familiar problem: I'd like to wear menswear, but my chest doesn't fit. 

 

"In an unplanned improvisation, I began trying to flatten my chest. What you see [in S/he/it] is the result of playing, developing, and exploring this problem."

 

 

The show is very fun, very physical — be prepared to bite your lip on more than one occasion — and, importantly, a very thought provoking hour of physical theatre.

 

Porter involves the audience (and does so very well) managing to be both the clown, and to make the audience think about what it is, or might be, to be someone who doesn't quite fit into the old and rigid, gender binary that our society favours.

 

As other's in the audience commented as we left, S/he/it Happens has the power to speak to those who've felt or are feeling what it's like to be nonbinary, or trans, or to feel gender dysphoria.

 

 

Short but oh-so-sweet, if you're looking for a gender-bending way to spend your Friday night in London, get your tickets here.

 

This one's worth a watch no matter where on the gender spectrum you've found yourself.

 

Now, can we have some more performance dates, please?

 

 

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