Alice d'Lumiere Will Bring THE TRANS LADY SINGS! to the Mercury Theatre Studio

East Anglian gender-fluid spoken word artist Alice d'Lumiere will bring the show The Trans Lady Sings! to the Mercury Theatre Studio on 16 October at 8pm.

The show is the result of Alice's eccentric endeavour to try to overcome her deep, childhood inability to sing. To Alice, classical music has always seemed terrifyingly stratified: Soprano, Contralto, Tenor, Bass; is the role you play always ordained by the limits of your vocal physiology? However, in the superficially respectable world of Opera, gender seems temptingly bendy at times.

For Tête à Tête: The Opera Festival Alice staged a "Spoken Word Overture". At this evening of new, experimental opera she laid down a challenge to herself in prose and verse; a pledge to try to overcome her deep, childhood inability to sing...

Two years, one Arts Council England Developing Your Creative Practice grant, numerous singing lessons with 6 different practitioners, scripting, composing, rehearsing and furiously attempting to relearn how to play to piano later, this self-confessed outsider in gender, and 50+ late-starter in opera, returned to Tête à Tête: The Opera Festival to reveal if she was finally able to hold a note.

The Trans Lady Sings! is written and performed by Alice d'Lumiere and contains original music by Tina Gooding, with additional music by d'Lumiere, and some possibly foolhardy attempts at the classical repertoire. The show covers themes of vocal identity, gender fluidity, life-long learning and the individual's need for self-expression are humorously explored by a beguiling communicator in a show; combining prose, verse, comedy, a dash of performance art and yes, perhaps this time some actual singing!

Alice d'Lumiere, (also known in "guy-mode" as Darren Gooding), is an East Anglian performer who grew up in Colchester. They are a theatre-maker, playwright and performance poet, and in both genders a regular contributor to the regional Arts scene, possessing a long-standing creative partnership with Colchester Arts Centre and more recently a burgeoning artistic relationship with the Mercury Theatre.  Alice has also been a regular performer and compere for Colchester Pride since its inception in 2017.

In 2023 Alice took her show “Speaking Out and Fitting In!” to Le Printemps Anglophone Festival in Avignon for her very first European performance.

All of Alice's artistic output involves an element of personal challenge; playing with preconceptions and pushing herself to learn new and unlikely performance skills; from close-up magic to aerial hoop.