The TransMission

An Unlimited UK Open Award 2024 commission made possible thanks to funding from Creative Scotland. Produced by Sanctuary Queer Arts and supported by The National Theatre of Scotland. Initial idea developed in R&D with fellow trans artist Afton Moran

The TransMission is a satirical performance piece that playfully interrogates the framing of trans rights as a debate. Devised and performed by Nelly Kelly (they/them), this work pokes fun at and deconstructs the more ridiculous media narratives often associated with trans people.

The work kicks off at the first ‘trans cult’ meeting to ever open its doors to cis people interested in their ‘way of life’, with Nelly aptly positioned as the overexaggerated cliché leader of the cult. Nelly messes with conventional theatre forms by taking heavy influence from the queer club performance scene, allowing for the very human feeling of connection that often comes with the way performers meet an audience in these spaces. The work amps up the ridiculous more and more, until it hits breaking point and we are left with a version of the real Nelly onstage, connecting with the audience intimately, as they ask what it means for a cis audience to really connect with all of the messy humans parts of them, the ones that connect us all with one another, cis or trans.