Rhum and Clay Theatre Company

Testosterone was born from a conversation in a kitchen between Kit Redstone and Julian Spooner about Kit’s decision to transition into becoming a man. The conversation went from jokes about what a later life adolescence could be like (Slipknot hoodies and banging doors), to our own reflections on the male experience, and we concluded it was ripe territory for theatre.

The main challenge of the piece was bringing together two very distinct theatre styles of Rhum and Clay Theatre Company and Kit Redstone, to create an original and bombastic show about masculinity and identity. We brought together an ensemble of performers from different backgrounds, tastes and experiences of masculinity to create a wide spectrum of diversity on stage. From the start it was important for the ensemble to use a gender transition story as a springboard to the wider theme of masculinity.

The show was inspired by the narrative of The Wizard of Oz and drew influences from iconic movies, pop culture and pulp fiction from our childhoods and adolescence. We were also inspired by the unreliable narrator in texts such as Nabokov's Lolita, magical realist fiction, and the film 'Precious' which plays with projected fantasies amidst autobiography.