As we walk in to Dee Allum: Deadname at Pleasance Courtyard , Man in the Mirror by Michael Jackson is playing. Dee comes on to Let’s Go Girls! by Shania Twain and John Lennon’s Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy) plays as we walk out.
I was born a man but am now interesting
From the get-go, Allum would like us to know she has a sense of humour about the whole ‘trans thing’. At times, it does feel like that’s what she’s doing over the course of her Fringe debut: trying to put a mostly cisgender audience at ease with her existence, which one can understand given the way transness is currently being discussed (hint: usually not by trans people nor positively).
Allum begins the show by getting us all up to speed with the answers to the FAQs she gets as a transwoman. Her soft spokenness and dry delivery help the show not feel like a preach-fest, which it isn’t at all; it is simply one person’s straightforward account of their transition and how they are reconciling this with themselves (both former and current), their loved ones and the world at large. The callbacks are constant and clever; the asides are astute (“a double-edged sword like all swords”) and we’re given a great life hack on owning a horse being the cheapest way to get ketamine.
Given the subject matter, there are naturally moments of tension which Allum deftly breaks almost as quickly as they arise. There are no frills, no unexpected twists or surprises, but Allum’s irrefutable charm and ability to mine such a deeply personal experience for a comedy hour shows she doesn’t need it. Or, as she succinctly puts it, “I was born a man but am now interesting.”
