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Post by zahidf on Mar 9, 2020 9:40:54 GMT
Fra Fee will star in a musical version of Frank McCabe's hit novel Breakfast on Pluto. Following its world premiereat Galway International Festival in July 2020, the show will transfer to the Birmingham Rep where it plays from 3to 26 September, witha press night on 9 September. After that it will play at the Donmar Warehouse in London. |
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Post by zahidf on Mar 9, 2020 10:20:41 GMT
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Post by n1david on Mar 9, 2020 10:23:26 GMT
This is playing in the main house at Birmingham Rep before the Donmar. They’re very different spaces, both in size and layout. I’d have thought it a challenge to design for both. I might make the trip up to Brum where it will probably be cheaper and easier to get tickets...
Donmar dates 2 Oct - 21 Nov.
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Post by ThereWillBeSun on Mar 9, 2020 11:03:21 GMT
Intrigued with this - the imagery reminds me of Ghost Quartet! Niamh Perry too - last saw her in Whisper House.
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Post by anthony40 on Mar 9, 2020 11:29:32 GMT
The email for this just landed in my inbox. Call me intrigued.
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Post by Jan on Mar 9, 2020 11:47:07 GMT
Transgender protagonist. Tick.
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Post by zahidf on Mar 9, 2020 15:00:02 GMT
Trans character played by a CIS man. That's (rightly) not going to go down well...
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Post by ThereWillBeSun on Mar 9, 2020 15:53:39 GMT
Trans character played by a CIS man. That's (rightly) not going to go down well... So I am ignorant and I didn't twig this. *facepalm* Until all the (quite rightly so) opposed views on Twitter. |
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Post by Jan on Mar 9, 2020 18:22:29 GMT
Trans character played by a CIS man. That's (rightly) not going to go down well... Oh dear, what a minefield identity politics is, I wonder if Michael Longhurst will issue an apology. Better to have just programmed Top Hat then everyone would have been happy, including those who don't bother going to the Donmar any more. Just out of interest, which trans actor is being recommended for the role ? |
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Post by zahidf on Mar 9, 2020 20:51:15 GMT
Trans character played by a CIS man. That's (rightly) not going to go down well... Oh dear, what a minefield identity politics is, I wonder if Michael Longhurst will issue an apology. Better to have just programmed Top Hat then everyone would have been happy, including those who don't bother going to the Donmar any more. Just out of interest, which trans actor is being recommended for the role ? Its not really difficult. If it's a trans role, it should be a trans actor playing it. In the same way, a white actor shouldn't play a Chinese role for a example, or an able bodied actor play someone with MS. I think the donmar have messed up. |
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Post by theoracle on Mar 9, 2020 21:03:22 GMT
I was excited about this until I heard about this issue. Isn't Fra LGBTQ+ anyways? If this was going to be an issue, I don't understand why he accepted knowing how sensitive an issue this is and the ongoing calls for diversity in showbiz.
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Post by happytobehere on Mar 9, 2020 22:04:21 GMT
How disappointing. I would’ve loved to see this but there’s no chance in hell im supporting cis people taking trans roles in 2020. There’s so many wonderful trans performers I know that would KILL this role, so there’s no excuse not to cast one- that talent is there.
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Post by justinj on Mar 9, 2020 22:08:07 GMT
Oh dear, what a minefield identity politics is, I wonder if Michael Longhurst will issue an apology. Better to have just programmed Top Hat then everyone would have been happy, including those who don't bother going to the Donmar any more. Just out of interest, which trans actor is being recommended for the role ? Its not really difficult. If it's a trans role, it should be a trans actor playing it. In the same way, a white actor shouldn't play a Chinese role for a example, or an able bodied actor play someone with MS. I think the donmar have messed up. So should Gay actors only be cast in gay roles? I’m not trying to be controversial here, but I think it should work both ways. As a gay man I’d be quite happy with a straight person playing a gay role just as I wouldn’t want to be excluded from playing straight roles because I am gay. |
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Post by zahidf on Mar 9, 2020 22:21:18 GMT
Its not really difficult. If it's a trans role, it should be a trans actor playing it. In the same way, a white actor shouldn't play a Chinese role for a example, or an able bodied actor play someone with MS. I think the donmar have messed up. So should Gay actors only be cast in gay roles? I’m not trying to be controversial here, but I think it should work both ways. As a gay man I’d be quite happy with a straight person playing a gay role just as I wouldn’t want to be excluded from playing straight roles because I am gay. Gay roles are different to transgender roles. Gender issues aren't the same as being gay |
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Post by kasper on Mar 9, 2020 22:31:57 GMT
OMG!!! I'm gay! And an amateur actor. I would hate it if I could only play gay parts. No way. Let us act. What ever. Should I be a baker to act in the Baker's Wife? Stop this nonsense. I want to play a straight man, queen Elisabeth I,Julius Cesar (and I'm not a Roman) etc etc... Everybody has to be able to play everything... Cut the crap!
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Post by couldileaveyou on Mar 9, 2020 22:32:53 GMT
Gender and sexuality are two different things, and the Donmar is clearly telling some serious crap with its tweets about having tried to reach out to the trans community: Fra Fee has been attached to the project for almost a year, he already played the role last summer in Ireland and I wouldn't be surprised if parts of the score had been written specifically for him or at least with his voice in mind. I can't think of a single trans actor playing a leading role in the West End, and this would have been the perfect opportunity for some transgender performer. Cillian Murphy famously played the role in the movie, but that was fifteen years ago and we now have a different approach to the whole issue of cis actors playing (and winning awards) for trans roles, while it's very rare for transgender actors to rise to prominency in pretty much any part. Not to mention that this trend of casting cis men as trans women seems to reinforce the idea that trans women are just men in a dress. In 2005 Felicity Huffman played a trans woman in Transamerica, which is still problematic casting by today's standards, but at least the production showed an awareness that trans women are indeed women. An awareness that the Donmar has chosen not to display.
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Post by couldileaveyou on Mar 9, 2020 22:36:17 GMT
OMG!!! I'm gay! And an amateur actor. I would hate it if I could only play gay parts. No way. Let us act. What ever. Should I be a baker to act in the Baker's Wife? Stop this nonsense. I want to play a straight man, queen Elisabeth I,Julius Cesar (and I'm not a Roman) etc etc... Everybody has to be able to play everything... Cut the crap! you're not making a living out of your acting, and neither are professional trans actors who struggle to get cast in either cis or trans roles |
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Post by carmella1 on Mar 9, 2020 22:42:06 GMT
For my education how many trans actors are currently in the UK. Not gay, not LBGQT specifically trans.
Do they go about saying they are trans??
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Post by justinj on Mar 9, 2020 22:45:55 GMT
So should Gay actors only be cast in gay roles? I’m not trying to be controversial here, but I think it should work both ways. As a gay man I’d be quite happy with a straight person playing a gay role just as I wouldn’t want to be excluded from playing straight roles because I am gay. Gay roles are different to transgender roles. Gender issues aren't the same as being gay Then should trans people be only allowed to play trans roles? My point is that if we truly want colour/sexuality/gender blind casting then it has to work both ways. At the end of the day they are actors, it’s their job to play someone that isn’t them. |
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Post by Mark on Mar 9, 2020 22:49:28 GMT
Gay roles are different to transgender roles. Gender issues aren't the same as being gay Then should trans people be only allowed to play trans roles? Oh no, That’s different 😏. So many people making a mountain out of a molehill as usual. Let actors act |
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Post by zahidf on Mar 9, 2020 23:07:09 GMT
Then should trans people be only allowed to play trans roles? Oh no, That’s different 😏. So many people making a mountain out of a molehill as usual. Let actors act Strange how it's the white CIS males who seems to benefit from that attitude. And how its probably the same arguments people made over the last hundred years over women actors being cast in female roles and 'blacking up'... |
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Post by happytobehere on Mar 9, 2020 23:48:25 GMT
I think the main issue with the idea that ‘everyone should be able to play anything’ line of thinking is that it is never used to help gay actors play straight roles, or asian people playing asian roles, or as in this, case trans people playing trans roles. The people who always benefit from that line of thinking is predominately the straight/cis people. It rarely extends the courtesy the other way.
The majority of queer representation you’ll see, especially on the screen (though not excluding stage), will be played by cis straight performers; yet you’ll hardly ever see queer actors playing straight roles. The minority group hardly benefits.
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Post by crowblack on Mar 10, 2020 0:09:12 GMT
I think the main issue with the idea that ‘everyone should be able to play anything’ line of thinking is that it is never used to help gay actors play straight roles, A 'take home' from all the actor biographies and Hollywood Babylons scattered around the house (and my Mum's brief time in Hollywood) is that many actors who spent their careers playing heterosexual heart-throb leading men were gay or bi. There are probably some young leading men now who aren't 'out'. Russell Tovey, Ben Whishaw etc. play gay and heterosexual roles. |
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Post by oxfordsimon on Mar 10, 2020 0:15:34 GMT
Do we know that Fra Fee has ever made any public statement as to the gender identity with which they most closely identify?
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Post by zahidf on Mar 10, 2020 6:32:50 GMT
I think the main issue with the idea that ‘everyone should be able to play anything’ line of thinking is that it is never used to help gay actors play straight roles, A 'take home' from all the actor biographies and Hollywood Babylons scattered around the house (and my Mum's brief time in Hollywood) is that many actors who spent their careers playing heterosexual heart-throb leading men were gay or bi. There are probably some young leading men now who aren't 'out'. Russell Tovey, Ben Whishaw etc. play gay and heterosexual roles. Tovey and whishaw are out! (Though I appreciate the wider point) |
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