SEX, CHIPS & HOLY GHOST

[CULTURE] Playwright Jo Clifford talks to Out There about her new play, Sex, Chips and the Holy Ghost.

David Walshe and I met when he played She in my play An Apple A Day.

His character was a transsexual woman who had to work as a prostitute (no other way for her to earn a living) and who had a client with a fetish for apples.

Cox’s pippins.

Eating the apple, burping, and allowing the client to smell her breath, and then orgasm, led to something unexpectedly beautiful for them both.

David was lovely to work with. Then he saw me play Jesus in my The Gospel According to Jesus Queen of Heaven.

To do that he had find his way past the several hundred fundamentalist protestors who were picketing the theatre. My play was about my affirming my pride in being a transsexual woman; and also there to remind people that Jesus himself never condemned people like me.

David came to see me afterwards and said he’d love to work with me as a performer.

I was flattered. David is a fantastic actor, and I knew I’d learn from him.

Both plays were about the connection between the sacred and the profane and although we didn’t know what our new play would be about, we found ourselves inventing a ritual that somehow consecrated our working together.

And involved a shared plate of chips.

David then introduced me to Susan Worsfold, an amazingly gifted director and voice teacher.

I managed to get a grant from Playwrights’ Studio Scotland to pay for us to spend a fortnight improvising together; and then with the help of the Citizens’ Theatre partially fund a third week to write the script..

And that’s how Sex, Chips and The Holy Ghost came into being.

I’ve written about 80 plays; but I’ve performed in very little. It frees me, somehow, to work as a performer. When I grew up in the fifties when there was no knowledge or understanding or information about trans issues at all. It was only when I started playing girls’ parts in school plays that I understood who I was: someone whose home was in the theatre.

Also someone born a boy but whose core identity was female.

All I could do was try to be “normal”: I buried my capacity to perform along with my female identity, and over the years they’ve both been surfacing together.

There’s no tradition of trans women writers or performers, at least not out in the open, and I need support to find my true voice. So its amazing to be working with David, and with Susan, who is a teacher in the Nadine George voice technique www.voicestudiointernational.com, and so uniquely able to help me.

As for the play, it’s about a transsexual nun, a gay priest, a bag of chips, a bus stop. And a miracle.

It takes us to a place where love is sacred, between no matter who, pleasure is holy, and a chip is the key to the kingdom of heaven.

And the kingdom tastes delicious...

See  www.sexchipsandtheholyghost.com

Sex, Chips and the Holy Ghost from Stuart Platt on Vimeo.

Sex Chips and The Holy Ghost, with Jo Clifford and David Walshe, opens at Oran Mor on Jan 30th at 1pm and runs until Feb 4th.

Jo Clifford’s blog can be found at www.teatrodomundo.com