The Making of Pinocchio: Digital Edition

Watch in-person at the Segal Film Festival on Theatre and Performance 2024 on 17 May and online through the festival website from 16 May for three weeks.

In this hybrid of theatre and film, shot and edited all in one take, you are invited to go behind the scenes of Cade & MacAskill’s creative process and their relationship, and question what it takes to tell your truth.

Artists and lovers Rosana Cade and Ivor MacAskill have been creating The Making of Pinocchio since 2018, alongside and in response to Ivor’s gender transition. In this digital edition of the work, their tender and complex autobiographical experience meets the magical story of the lying puppet who wants to be a ‘real boy’.

With an ingenious scenography designed by Tim Spooner, layered with sound by Yas Clarke, lights by Jo Palmer and cinematography from Kirstin McMahon, the show employs split-screen, forced perspective and intimate close ups to constantly shift between between fantasy and authenticity, humour and intimacy, on stage and on screen.

The Making of Pinocchio joyfully embraces the importance of imagination in queer worldmaking and the idea of transness as a state of possibility that can trouble fixed perspectives and inspire change.

‘★★★★’ ‘The wondrous trans tale of Pinocchio… A funny, clever and thoughtful two-hander, rich in playful imagery and direct-to-camera asides, about identity, definition and acceptance… The satire is gentle, but the politics are clear.’ The Guardian

‘★★★★’ ‘The Making of Pinocchio is clever and absorbing, full of reflection and self-revelation, powerful visual imagery and movement.’ The Scotsman

‘It was so beautiful, and such deft balancing of things for trans audiences and things for cis ones. Also, I never cry with joy at things but I did at the ending of it, and i’m crying now thinking about it… it was just so beautiful… a very joyful watch… and such deft balancing of things for trans audiences and things for cis ones… it’s so rare.’ Audience response