Transgender tragedy

Posted on 27 Feb 2020

A brand new LGBTQ+ production, exploring what a teenage rent boy in Havana is willing to give up to be loved and accepted, makes its debut in Birmingham’s Gay Village this month.

Set against the turbulence of post-revolution Cuba - a world of neon lights, Cabaret Tropicana, cigar smoke and economic uncertainty - De Nada Dance’s new production, Mariposa, is a transgender tragedy brimming with magical realism and drama.

The show follows the title character as he grapples with a massive question - should he sacrifice his gender in exchange for a better life with Preston, the foreign sailor he loves?

Mariposa’s free expression of sexual desire allows Preston to break free, temporarily, from the heteronormativity that defines his life - although he repeatedly tells the teenager that his heart will only belong to a woman. Determined to marry the man he loves, Mariposa visits a nearby orisha shrine - part of Cuba’s voodoo-like religion, santería - to sacrifice his masculinity and become a transwoman.

But will Preston’s love prove steadfast?

"Mariposa is all about representing ethnically diverse LGBTQ+ narratives on stage,” says the director of DeNada Dance Theatre, Carlos Pons Guerra - one of contemporary ballet’s most highly rated emerging queer voices. “It's fantastic that it’s opening its wings in a city as diverse and multicultural as Birmingham. We really hope audiences from across the Midlands and further afield will be touched by this very special show - a dance version of Puccini’s Madame Butterfly, one of the most iconic operas ever written."

DeNada Dance Theatre’s Mariposa shows at the Patrick Studio, Birmingham Hippodrome, in Birmingham’s Gay Village on Friday 27 & Saturday 28 March. You can get your tickets here