Ok, but Who Is Claude Cahun?

I'm writing this on the train up to London, heading back after a weekend at home on the South coast - what will be my last weekend home for the next six weeks.

May has been a month of hauling suitcases, navigating underground escalators, and falling asleep against train windows, as I've travelled up and down to London for rehearsals and then off to all sorts of places running pre-show workshops for ‘Who Is Claude Cahun?’

The cast is marvelous. There's lovely Sharon Drain, another Sussex local who I've had the pleasure of working with in ‘Clean: The Musical' and the Treason Show. There's German-Californian Ben Bela Böhm, known for ‘Better Call Saul’, and Gethin Alderman, who among other things played The Shreek in Doctor Who. And Claude Cahun themself is performed by Lilit Lesser, who you'll have seen recently as Princess Mary in Wolf Hall. The energy in the room is rocket fuel.

I've let myself fall deep into the research on this - if you let me, I'll reel off all sorts of facts and little moments from Claude and Marcel's life under German occupation on the Channel Islands. I've learnt period-appropriate ways to tie a headscarf. I got so excited about 1930s cameras that Joshua's grandmother gifted me a box Brownie camera from that time period. I want to know everything I can so that I can do this story justice, but also the more I learn, the more I find these moments of intense recognition - experiences from queer artists nearly a century ago that could have been taken word for word from my own life.

It feels particularly special to be doing this show in Pride Month. Today, my social media has been back-to-back rainbow celebration, queer memes, and updates on the ongoing battles for trans rights, and I feel Claude and Marcel’s story echoing in each one. Their love, art and resistance has been feeding me all May, and I can't wait to start sharing this piece of queer history with audiences in just a few weeks time.

If you'd like to come and see the show, I'd love to see you there. Performances run June 18th-July 12th, and tickets are available at the Southwark Playhouse website - just follow the link on my Linktree.