She/They at Nextfest. Program image supplied

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca

The thorny question of how you change people’s minds is at the heart of a new comedy about serious things, premiering on the Nextfest 2023 mainstage.

In She/They, a famed feminist author, cancelled and doxed, and her granddaughter, a gender studies major, find themselves together — and miles apart. “I was really trying to figure out why people think the way they do,” says playwright Madi May, “and how transphobic feminist minds might be changed.”

The inspiration, she says, was the reverb from suddenly discovering that “iconic feminist authors, writers I looked up to growing up, were  revealing themselves to be transphobic…. They have a megaphone online. And they were disagreeing fundamentally with the existence of people I care about.” J.K. Rowling, Germaine Greer, Margaret Atwood … “it was quite shocking, especially Margaret Atwood,” says May. “I felt if only I could pick up the phone and speak with her for an hour, maybe we’d get somewhere….”

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Yes “transphobic is a harsh label,” she says. “But it’s important for conversations to be exact. And I do think it’s possible for people’s minds to change.”

“Originally conceived as a TV show,” She/They is a comedy, which defies audience expectations in a way May likes. “When I’m writing a play I don’t often think it’s going to be a comedy, but it often ends up that way.” And so it went with the play Nextfest and soon Fringe audiences will see. “Moments that are very funny…. With plays in general, I’m trying to find something that’s personal and needs to be explored.”

playwright Madi May. Photo supplied.

“I wanted it to be entertaining,” says May of her comic muse. She immersed herself in feminist literature, heavy-going at the best of times (let’s face it, The Female Eunuch in audio book form isn’t on many road trip playlists). “Where are the laughs?” she says, a smile in her voice. “How do I keep the good times rollin’?”

And when you’re setting out to change people’s minds, there are serious pluses to this comedy manifesto. “Feminism and gender, which I’m very interested in exploring, are also very sensitive things to talk about. People, I think myself included, get a little nervous, a little clamped up, talking about these things…. (Comedy) allows things to breathe.”

The subject at hand is so interesting, “why not make it entertaining? So it’s two good things happening at once.” Just so you know, She/They doesn’t end badly for the characters. “I took the feminist mantra of the personal being political to heart. People’s minds do change when things become personal. I think that’s a fact of life, and I don’t think that’s a bad thing.”   

Nextfest artistic director Ellen Chorley, who’s followed the development of May’s career, was drawn to the originality of her playwriting from the start. “Even very early on, Madi had a distinct voice,” Chorley says. “Definitely someone who really understands comedy and how it works,” by no means a universal insight in theatre artists. She/They “tackles tough topics around feminism, but in a loving and interesting way!”

May has been a writer for a lot of her 21 years.  “I tried writing a novel in Grade 3, and quickly realized it was mostly dialogue”: an early tip-off that theatre would be her destination of choice.  “At 15 I started writing plays, and I’ve been doing that ever since.” And in high school theatre was a  total immersion experience: she explored technical theatre, stage managing shows, doing lighting and sound design. She did the sound design for She/They herself.

May is a veritable poster artist for Nextfest. “It was integral to me cementing a career in theatre,” May says. It was at the festival that “I realized it was something I could do, something I really loved doing…. Getting the whole thing together: I truly felt on top of the world afterward.” She/They is her seventh show at Nextfest. Her first? At 16 she wrote and directed Pas De Deux, “quite the personal piece about two girls in a dance theatre” who gradually realize they’re not attracted to dance, they’re attracted to each other. “Pretty sweet,” she says, recalling with a laugh being a bit taken aback when it was called “angsty.”

Her most recent? Last Nextfest’s Fantomina, a solo show that’s a contemporary re-telling of an 18th century Eliza Haywood proto-feminist novella about a woman who disguises herself as different women to continue sleeping with the same man.

And now, much to her delight, with She/They May has a play that Nextfest will produce at the upcoming Fringe. “I’m thrilled,” she says, “the first time a play I’ve written has gone to the Fringe.” And She/They is a rare chance to see May herself onstage. “I had so much fun writing it. When I write I speak every line… I wanted to own the show,” she says of Daisy Brazil’s production, in which she co-stars with Tessa Yakimchuk. “I really believe in it.”

She/They runs Tuesday at 7 p.m.  and Wednesday at 5 p.m. See nextfest.ca for tickets and further details.