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Brighton Fringe

LOOKING CIS: Conversation-changing satire about gender identity comes to Brighton Fringe 2024

Graham Robson April 11, 2024

Award-winning solo show Looking Cis will tour to the Brighton Fringe, playing two nights in The Actors on 23 & 24 May.

Looking Cis is a conversation-changing satire investigating what we can and can’t say about gender when we know we’re being watched. It follows Ella, freshly evicted from tawdry reality show The Enbyist Enby, where non-binary people compete for the chance to win a gender recognition certificate. Ella’s voted out for being old, looking cis, and saying things she probably shouldn’t.

The show takes us through her exit interview: on the brink of infamy, will Ella redeem herself by baring her soul in the uncomfortably public forum of live TV? Will she say something that makes everything worse? Or will she just try to distract us all with a dance routine?

Looking Cis premiered at the 2023 International Dublin Gay Theatre Festival – the world’s largest festival of queer theatre – where it won the Sean Meehan Award for representing LGBTQ+ identities.

Writer-performer Ella Skolimowski says: Gender identity is a contested issue – everyone has an opinion – and people find it difficult to make sense of it and find their place within it. Non-binary people can feel like a minority of a minority: even within LGBTQ+ activism, their experiences can be overlooked.

“Where I live the gender recognition laws are progressive, but there’s still no option to identify as something other than male or female; actually, only two EU countries offer a third gender option. I wanted to write to and for this growing group of people looking to chart a third way.”

Looking Cis at The Actors, 4 Prince’s St, Brighton BN2 1RD as part of Brighton Fringe on 23 & 24 May. Tickets HERE

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