New York-based Australian performer, playwright, screenwriter, multi award-winner and self-described 'trans-queen' Glace Chase has returned to Australia and is prepared to reveal her innovative play, ‘Triple X’, a piece which will threaten and test society’s perception of what love is.
This year, audiences will be treated to a play that’s been cooking for a few years now: a romantic comedy never told before, which is now ready to be dished out with a ‘Triple X’ serving.
“It’s about a straight dude that has an affair with a trans performer,” Glace reveals, “and his family finding out the day before he gets married. It’s really about loneliness; two lonely people finding each other – for at least a moment in time, if not forever.”
Glace says she was originally reluctant to do the play because theatre is a massive change of pace, and is very different from her life back in New York.
“I feel very exposed in the day. The night is much friendlier to us nightlife creatures,” she says.
However, with a bit of friendly peer pressure from a good friend and director, Paige Rattray, Glace got writing.
Glace mentions the main difference between this [a play she has not only written but is also starring in] and anything else: “I didn’t give a f…! It was from day dot. . . I said, ‘I do it my way or I walk. I’m not interested. I don't give a sh.t. I don't need theatre. I don't want theatre. I'm sharing this story because it's an important story to be told’. So that’s the difference. It freed me up. It freed me up to tell the story I want to tell and to not be worried about the daylight pressures. It was a lot of fun.”
Image © Hollis Johnson
Glace also mentions there’ll be a sex scene somewhere in the play, boasting, “it's the best sex scene in theatre history. The scene just goes there, and what I will say is that it’s a really joyful scene. Whether you find it explicit. . . I mean it is explicit, but who doesn't love that? I always love it when people are having great sex. I live in Brooklyn; we all get our kit off.”
“I have worked various stages of nudity, you know, many days a week for the last five years, I get up on a bar and tell explicit stories. I'm flashing myself. Yeah, so it's not really that different.”
Glace reflects on how she thinks audiences will receive the show.
“I think this play. . . Some people will find offensive and disgusting. I imagine, some will find it freaky, and then others will be incredibly moved. I really put it back on the audience as to what they find it,” she continues. “This play is very true, and comes from a very truthful place.”
From laugh crying to actual crying, ‘Triple X’ is an emotionally complex piece. “You will be laughing and then suddenly you're going to be crying, and then suddenly while crying, you're going to be laughing again,” Glace assures. “Yeah, it's funny, it is absolutely funny. And then, you know, sometimes unexpectedly, it’s kind of moving so I would say it's a comedy, it’s a romantic comedy.”
When asked if she had any last words to say to trans kids who might want to follow in her footsteps, Glace jokes, “HA! Don’t do it,” before clarifying, “always be true to yourself and love yourself. It's so hard, but love yourself. The earlier you can, the better.”
