S/He is Nancy Joe @ Zoo Southside

S/He is Nancy Joe is a Czech physical theatre piece that follows a transgender person's experience from childhood into adulthood. While there are certain issues with the relevance of some of the abstract dance in between parts of the story, this is a multimedia performance that is definitely educational. It seems to accurately capture the frustration and anger of someone who grows up feeling they should be a different gender. 

The performance, as Mirenka Cechova informs us at the end, is based on someone's real life experience. While it starts off with the idea of female to male transition, it gestures politely towards genderqueer people, as not everyone agrees with the idea of just two genders. 

On some level, the show could be considered a little fragile, since the idea of a little girl playing with a truck being directly linked to being transgender is a little iffy – for want of a better word – but obviously it is purely designed on a visual basis. Hence it is understandable that a certain degree of symbolism is necessary.

Either way, this is a very intelligent and thoughtful piece designed to kickstart the conversation about transgender and generally LGBTQ issues, including hate crime, and gender dysphoria. Also, it introduces the idea of self-identification, and self-image relative to how other people perceive someone. It's not all anger, frustration, and violence, however, as S/He is Nancy Joe tips its hat to the internet for bringing together people with similar issues, thus creating a bizarre solidarity and virtual support community. [Eric Karoulla]