It’s quite an epic, ambitious, metatheatrical show. It is a play within a play, with music. We introduce the story of Joe Carstairs, through playwright Hik Greenlee, a young non-binary playwright who is commissioned to write a play about this iconic, rebellious force. Carstairs was a British powerboat racer, who acquired quite a collection of trophies including the title of ‘fastest woman on water’, building various boats from their own boatyard on the Isle of Wight. Joe was also known for being very wealthy, leading an extravagant lifestyle, and for being openly queer in the early 20th century.
Why do you think Joe’s story is relevant to modern day audiences?
Joe’s story includes universal themes such as friendship, conflict, perseverance, love, privilege and loss, these are timeless human experiences that tend to remain relevant. In our Joe Carstairs, we are looking at these themes from a non-binary queer perspective, touching on aspects of the human condition that are still pertinent today: i.e how easily the mass media can create quick clickbait headlines, division and destroy years of the progress we have achieved in terms of equality, justice, and personal freedom. All that we have fought hard for and won, could be easily taken away from us. Similarly, in Carstairs times, from the roaring twenties where it seemed like the world was becoming more progressive and accepting to the point when we are hit by an ever-growing wave of repression and anti-gay sentiment, particularly post WWII. This remains very relevant to many of us, particularly with the recent rise in queerphobic dogma through news, across social media and even in our government, whilst then gay men were the most visibly persecuted, now the target is the trans and non-binary community – much of it because people are either misinformed and ignorant – all it takes is a celebrity to post LGBTQIA+ hate in their social media, for the walls to start to shake. The play is a celebration too, a celebration for those who, like Carstairs, opened ways for us to exist.
What was the process of writing a piece that exists in both historical and modern day?
We started with an initial research and development process where we learned all we could about Joe. And then set out to investigate which parts of the story we were interested in shining a light on, what was dramatic enough to make it into a stage play with music. Carstairs is a person with so many incredible events in their life – a lot which was hidden, like many other queer icons, their story buried away. Initially we thought it was going to be a historical play, but the more we worked on it, the more we felt that we needed a modern voice in the story to discuss the parts which were provoking us, parts that we now have the language to discuss it. That’s when Hik and Tee arrived, they were going to voice our troubles, confusion, and concern. The script went through a lot of feedback, we were really privileged to be working with our amazing dramaturg, Katharina Reinthaller, and our lovely directors, Lex and Selwin, they all had an input on how Hik’s journey would evolve parallel to Carstairs. There was so much material, you know, Carstairs’ life could easily fit into a TV series.
How did your experience as a writer influence the character Hik?
Hik, naturally, has a lot of me, and Krysia,– at the start the idea was to bring the playwright’s mind to Hik, but of course, the character grew beautifully into its own person and journey. So, although, there’s a lot that we gave to Hik that was ours, from my own non-binary experience for instance, from workshop discussions we had, to difficult conversations we have had with the general public that fed the drive and even some of Hik’s and others character lines – they eventually found their own ground and history.
What is the key message of the play?
I think different people might have different takes on it – but for me, it’s more of a key question than a key message, and that is: “Does privilege, financial and otherwise, dictate how authentic you can be?”
What’s an interesting fact about Joe that maybe didn’t make it into the piece?
Originally, we did have a moment where we shared Carstairs’ relationship with Marlene Dietrich. They were both known for their strong personalities and unconventional lifestyles, and their friendship was celebrated by those who admired their independence and refusal to conform to traditional gender roles. Sadly, we had to take it out as it didn’t drive the piece dramatically forward.
Joe Carstairs is headlining Omnibus Theatre’s 96 Festival 4 – 22 June, more information and how to book tickets here: https://www.omnibus-clapham.
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