This is a play of knives and fireballs. Marking the final show in Emma Frankland’s performance series None of Us is Yet a Robot, which explores the politics of gender identity and the process of transitioning, Hearty is a ferocious cry for the safety of trans women.
With an injured tail and wings made of knives, Frankland is our guide in the apocalypse. The trans artist hunts for safety in a burning world where trans bodies are policed, activism is commercialised and violence is fuelled by fear. She sharpens the knives protruding from her shoulder blades and builds herself a den to protect herself from the violence outside. This is about survival.
There is a charged immediacy to this piece. As reported hate crimes against trans and non-binary people rocket, the world Frankland creates is only a sliver away from our own. When she begs us individually: “Please don’t hurt me,” we realise how much potential threat each new face can hold when society tells you to be ashamed of your own identity.
But both she and this piece are strong; when she says she could shoot fire from her fingertips, I believe her. As waves of revolution fail, the script stutters and starts again, and still we hold out hope that when she leaves this room she has made for herself, she will find safety.
Right now the trans community need loud voices, both from within and without. Hearty, both furious and vulnerable, pays tribute to the trans artists who have paved the way for work as bold as this, and lays the ground for those that will follow. Brands don’t lead revolutions. People like Emma Frankland do.
• At Summerhall, Edinburgh, until 24 August.
• Read all our Edinburgh festival reviews.
