Sometimes a show on the Edinburgh Fringe is less about getting bums on seats and more about the message.
TERF is a clear protest against the rise of transphobia in the UK, a headline-grabbing affair intended to improve the level of debate beyond its current ‘moral panic’ like status. It’s here to educate and inform. While also being a solid 75 minutes of entertaining theatre.
TERF is about the way that a popular children’s author, Jo, used social media to transition from a beloved public figure to someone seemingly obsessed with denigrating the 0.5% of the population who are transgender, much to the chagrin of those around her. Three friends of hers, Daniel, Emma and Rupert, stage an intervention in a posh public restaurant; wackiness ensues.
The play opens with a notice that this entire thing is fiction, and it’s clear very early on that each character is a wild parody of the real persons they represent. This is not a documentary. The narrative bounces between the restaurant and snap-shots of Jo’s life leading up to this moment. The performances are extremely strong and over-the-top.
This means that you should not expect the character of Jo to really reflect a similar public figure. Actress Laura Kay Bailey delivers the character of Jo as a faux-posh, stuck-up, self-righteous, and fear-driven snob who is immediately unlikeable. It is a fantastic performance.
Similarly, Piers Mackenzie’s Daniel is a nervous, almost permanently anxious, hyperactive adult who never quite stopped being a teenager. Tom Longmire’s Rupert is almost understated, a charming and silly adult, and Trelawny Keen’s Emma is superb as an insufferable know-it-all who throws memorised facts and figures into the air as if they could serve as some sort of magical shield against bigotry and stupidity.
They are other characters also, and at its core, TERF is about the consequences of a life lived in fear, of running away from who you are. The main conflict of the play centres around guilt and disappointment, how one’s expectations of someone can change in an instant, and how a series of bad choices can fester and rot. Ultimately, the result is tragedy.
TERF does have some problems as a production. It feels either a little too short or a little too long (a problem not uncommon with Edinburgh Fringe productions), and it requires the viewer to have a passing familiarity with the concept of empathy. It’s not subtle, but you do have to care about other people to enjoy this one.
Intelligent, thought-provoking and worth a look. But do make sure you go and see something a bit more relaxing afterwards.
TERF is currently at the Edinburgh Fringe till the 25th, and you can find tickets here. You can learn more about the play (and future tours) here.
