Powerful shows Adam and Eve will return to the stage

The National Theatre of Scotland’s emotive and powerful shows about two extraordinary trans lives are set to return in 2018.

Both shows Adam, and Eve, debuted at the Traverse Theatre during the 2017 Edinburgh Fringe, earning substantial critical acclaim and striking a chord with audiences throughout the Festival.

In 2018, Adam returns to the stage to play at the Beacon Arts Centre from 4 to 5 May and Brighton Festival from 9 to 12 May, before Adam and Eve are presented in a double bill at Dundee Rep from 24 to 26 May 2018.

Later in the year, Adam will be presented as part of the Phoenix season at Battersea Arts Centre, London from 18 to 29 September 2018.
In May a new book of stories from the Adam World Choir, I Am, which has been created in partnership with the Mental Health Foundation and the National Theatre of Scotland, will launch as part of the Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival.

Adam was conceived for the stage and directed by Cora Bissett, written by Frances Poet, with music composed by Jocelyn Pook, set and costume design by Emily James, sound design by Garry Boyle, lighting design by Lizzie Powell, projection design by Jack Henry James and movement direction by Janis Claxton.

Adam Kashmiry and Rehanna MacDonald star in Adam

Performed by Adam Kashmiry and Rehanna MacDonald, Adam is the remarkable, true story of a young trans man and his journey to reconciliation; with himself, those closest to him, and the world as he knows it. From Egypt to Scotland, it charts Adam’s fight across borders and genders to find a place to call home.

Adam was born into a girl’s body in Egypt, but always knew that he was really a boy. Trapped with no way to describe this feeling, in a deeply conservative society where falling in love with the wrong person can get you killed, he knew that he had to escape. With a borrowed laptop he types in a question: ‘Can the soul of a man be trapped in the body of a woman?’ What followed was beyond Adam’s wildest dreams. A catalyst to begin the epic journey for the right to change his body, to the boy he knows himself to be.

Adam is directed by award-winning theatre director Cora Bissett (co-creator of Glasgow Girls, Rites and Roadkill and director of Room) with music composed by Jocelyn Pook (Stage Works British Composer Award winner in 2012 for her soundtrack to DESH) and written by playwright and dramaturg Frances Poet.

Adam is a powerful two hander, featuring a stand–out performance by Adam Kashmiry. Adam is the real person on whom the drama is based, who made a notable professional stage debut in the production last year. He previously appeared in the Citizen Theatre’s and Scottish Refugee Council’s Here We Stay at the Tron Theatre as part of Scottish Refugee Week in 2013. He was closely involved in the development of the show, focussing as it does on his own personal experiences.

Featuring a score sung by a virtual choir of trans and non-binary individuals from across the world who are projected onto the stage, Adam is both a bold exploration of the experience of a young transgender person and an ambitious experiment with theatrical form, blending storytelling, classical composition and mass digital elements from participants from around the globe.

Eve stars Jo Clifford, who co-wrote the play

The second play, Eve, was written by Jo Clifford and Chris Goode, and offers audiences an authentic and intimate insight into the real life experiences of a trans person.

The performance is a profound reflection on one trans woman’s life, from an oppressive 1950s boyhood to the present day. Following her turbulent life journey through a time of huge personal, social and political change, Eve celebrates the victories of survival and self-actualisation.

A deeply personal piece that speaks generously to, and for, a much wider community, Eve is a performance in which the smallest details of everyday life can open up cracks through which memories, dreams and reflections flood in. Performed with warmth and humour, passion and anger, Eve invites audiences into the most intimate relationship with the story of an individual’s life.

Eve is created by ground-breaking writer and performer Jo Clifford (The Gospel According to Jesus Queen of Heaven) and the award-winning theatre-maker Chris Goode (Men in the Cities and Sisters). It was Clifford’s 91st play in a remarkable career that has seen her work performed across the world.

She was the first openly transgendered woman playwright to have had a play produced on London’s West End stage and earlier in 2017 was welcomed into the Saltire Society’s ‘Outstanding Women of Scotland’ community. Also in 2017 her translation of Lorca’s The House of Bernarda Alba was presented by Graeae Theatre Company at the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester.

Jo Clifford and Chris Goode also recently collaborated on Jo’s play Every One which received its English premiere at Battersea Arts Centre, London in 2016.

Adam will be performed at:

The Beacon Arts Centre, Greenock, Friday 4 and Saturday 5 May. Tickets are £12-£15, from www.beaconartscentre.co.uk.

Theatre Royal, Brighton (Brighton Festival), Wednesday 9 to Saturday 12 May. Tickets are £10-£22.50, from www.brightonfestival.org.

Dundee Rep Theatre, Dundee, Thursday 24 to Saturday 26 May (as part of Adam/Eve double bill). Tickets are £9-£25, from www.dundeerep.co.uk.

Battersea Arts Centre, London, 18-29 September. Tickets: £15-£30, from www.bac.org.uk.