God's New Frock

Written: 2005

Intercity Festival, Florence - translated into Italian

PRESS COVERAGE

Imagine:

There's a boy called Billie who really wants to be a girl. But he's not allowed to show it.

And there's a god called Jehovah who's got a wardrobe full of frocks. A closet he's afraid to show anyone. A closet he's locked and thrown away the key.

After a successful try out at the Tron last year this is the first full production of John Clifford's quirky and original new play and marks John's debut as a performer. John is the award winning author of about 60 plays including LOSING VENICE, INES DE CASTRO, LIFE IS A DREAM and GREAT EXPECTATIONS.

He's performing to live, lyrical and gorgeous music especially composed and performed by Robert Burlin and the show is directed by Lorenzo Mele. Produced in association with Glasgay.

Notes about the play:

It's begun to strike me, reading the book of GENESIS, that God's hiding something. He's not being straight with us. He's got something hidden in his closet, and tonight we're going to find out what it is...

We'll find out through an experiment. An experiment with form. Traditional ideas of what manhood means are bringing war to every continent and endangering all of our lives. It's urgent that we explore different understandings of what it means to be a man; and to do so we need to explore different forms.

So myself, the director Lorenzo Mele and the composer Robert Burlin. decided to collaborate to see how far we could get making words work with music, and music work with words.

It's an experiment in another sense too. I've written about 60 plays and seen them through into production. But I've never performed in one of my own. I'm curious to see what happens when I try.