An article in last September’s issue of GCN sparked a fuse that’s led to the formation of Ireland’s rst trans artist’s collective, which in turn has led to a major trans-led collaborative event at this year’s Dublin Fringe Festival. Trans Live Art Salon member, Robyn McQuaid-O’Dwyer talks about having a real impact on trans presence on the Irish stage.

Opinion

Self-representation – Trans art – Dublin Fringe

This time 12 months ago I wrote an article for GCN on the state of trans representation in Irish theatre. Mostly, I wrote about 2015, when there were more trans narratives on Irish stages in one year than there had been in the previous several decades. While this was a hugely positive step, I was concerned about the fact that it was mostly cis writers, directors, and performers delivering these first ever narratives of people like me to Irish audiences. As all LGBT+ readers of this can attest, while people who don’t have our experiences can tell interesting stories, they frequently have a tendency to focus on what is interesting for cis or for straight people, not for the community being represented.