The Making of Pinocchio: Digital Edition

Welcome to The Making of Pinocchio! – an up-close behind the scenes look at the quest to make Pinocchio the perfectly imperfect trans masc narrative of our times.

In a forest of real wood and fake wood, and real fake wood, and fake real wood, join the cast, crew and creators as they construct Pinocchio over and over again, shaking the boundaries between possible and impossible, reality and fantasy. Turning wood into flesh, boys into donkeys, and making that nose grow… the tricks of the trade will be revealed before your very eyes.

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. Glimpsed through a fictionalised making process, the artists’ real autobiographical experience meets the magical story of the little lying puppet who wants to be a real boy.

Enter a world of wildly queer utopic imaginings, conjured in a click and lock landscape where everything can change, and everything can connect.

The Making of Pinocchio: Digital Edition was designed as a special one-off digital performance, filmed in one take at Tramway (Glasgow) and first streamed online at Take Me Somewhere Festival May 2021. It also exists as a live performance that will tour from Spring 2022.

‘★★★★’ ‘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