In a playful and joyous way

The BBC squeals:

Royal Court play Cowbois aims to put ‘trans joy’ centre stage

Surely that should be joi?

A Royal Court play aims to bring trans stories to a new audience in London with an LGBTQ+ take on the Wild West.

Which is it? Trans, or LGBTQ+? Trans, apparently, so why does the BBC call it LGBTQ+?

I suppose we know why. They do it to further the campaign to force-team the LG with the T. Why that’s part of the BBC’s job is a mystery too profound for me to solve.

The producers of Cowbois say the play, first seen at the Royal Shakespeare Company, is for everyone but particularly those less familiar with trans identities.

Writer Charlie Josephine said they wanted to highlight “trans joy”. They also wanted to show forgotten transgender histories, in a playful and joyous way. “I knew I was writing for people who were less familiar with trans people,” says Charlie, who also co-directs the play and uses he/they pronouns, says.

Because of this, Charlie says they stuck with a classic narrative but threw in a less classic romantic lead – a trans-masculine bandit named Jack.

Trans trans trans trans trans. One trans for each sentence.

This was particularly apparent through the character of the sheriff, Charlie explained, who they described as a cis-gendered man who learned he could like wearing feminine clothing.

It’s all about the clothes. It’s a profound deep ineradicable part of the self plus it’s all about the clothes. Lots of intense intellectual work going on here.

Bea, a non-binary Londoner who also goes by the name Alan, came to the theatre with their dad Phil. They said the play’s trans representation had the family in tears. A particular scene stood out to Phil: “When Lou said, ‘how I feel on the inside and how I feel on the outside matches’, that was amazing.”

And so original.

The stately Beeb concludes:

The team behind the production hopes the play will give Londoners a fun night out.

The team hopes the play will sell tickets.

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