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The Making of Pinocchio: Digital Edition

Cade & MacAskill

Cade & MacAskill look up at a tall structure that is similar to a tree
Photo by Niall Walker

A true tale of love and transition told through the story of Pinocchio. 

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 Making of Pinocchio is currently touring as a live performance. Find out more about the live performance

Nominated for the Off West End Awards’ Best IDEA Production (IDEA: Innovative / Devised / Experiential / Atypical)

★★★★ ‘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

★★★★ ‘More than anything, The Making of Pinocchio testifies to an evolving, continually transforming love between partners, a love for making things and oneself.’ 

The Stage

‘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
Rosana Cade and Ivor MacAskill in conversation with Indigo Korres and Leo Torre for Changing the Frame podcast.

‘The duo hold the audience with a brand of mischievous humour that’s provocative and reassuring in equal measure.’

Exeunt

Cade & MacAskill are Rosana Cade (they/them) and Ivor MacAskill (he/him): renowned queer artists and facilitators based in Glasgow, Scotland. Their work, together and individually, straddles the worlds of experimental contemporary theatre, live art, queer cabaret, film, children’s performance, site specific, and socially engaged practices. 

Their collaboration is born from a shared love of subversive humour, experimentation with persona and text, playful theatricality, and the joy they find in improvising together. They also share a passion for LGBTQIA+ rights and culture. They create strange, full aesthetic worlds on stage, with unique sonic elements embedded into their work due to ongoing collaboration with sound artist and designer Yas Clarke.

They are both experienced facilitators and trained volunteers with LGBT Youth (Glasgow). They are currently in the process of setting up a co-operative to open a new LGBTQIA+ secondhand shop / community space in Glasgow.

www.cademacaskill.com

A Fierce Festival, Kampnagel, Tramway & Viernulvier Co-Commission.
Produced by Artsadmin.
Funded by Creative Scotland, Rufolf Augstein Stiftung and Arts Council England.
Supported by The Work Room/Dianne Torr Bursary, Scottish Sculpture Workshop, National Theatre of Scotland, Live Art Development Agency, Gessnerellee, Mousonturm, Forest Fringe, West Kowloon Cultural District, LGBT Health & Wellbeing Scotland, Glasgow Zine Library.

Created and performed by Rosana Cade & Ivor MacAskill
Set, Prop & Costume Designer: Tim Spooner
Sound Designer: Yas Clarke
Lighting Designer & Production Manager: Jo Palmer
Producer: Mary Osborn for Artsadmin

Outside Eye: Nic Green
Creative Coach: Stacy Makishi
Video consultancy: Mamoru Iriguchi
Digital Edition:
Cinematographer: Kirstin McMahon
Camera operator: Alex Storey Gordon
Technician: Samuel Martin-Randerson & Sam Burnley
Assistant Stage Manager: Goose Masondo
Audio description: Juliana Capes
Captioning: Collective Text; Emilia Beatriz, Daniel Hughes with Rosana Cade, Yas Clarke, Ivor MacAskill, and Jamie Rea

Date Title Venue City
10–11 May 2023 The Making of Pinocchio Auawirleben Theaterfestival, Bern
12–13 November 2022 The Making of Pinocchio Alkantara Festival, Lisbon
28 October 2022 The Making of Pinocchio Tramway, Glasgow
19–20 October 2022 The Making of Pinocchio ACCA, Brighton
12–13 October 2022 The Making of Pinocchio Fierce Festival, Birmingham
30 July 2022 Anything Could Happen Here: The Making of Pinocchio Heart of Hawick Cinema Hawick
29 June – 2 July 2022 The Making of Pinocchio Battersea Arts Centre, as part of LIFT 2022 London
29 June – 10 July 2022 The Making of Pinocchio: Digital Edition Online via LIFT's website London
23 May 2022 The Making of Pinocchio: Digital Edition Vierte Welt Berlin
12–14 May 2022 The Making of Pinocchio Kampnagel Hamburg
12–14 May 2022 The Making of Pinocchio: Digital Edition Kampnagel
28 April 2022 The Making of Pinocchio: Digital Edition Live Collision International Festival Dublin
4 March 2022 The Making of Pinocchio: Digital Edition Warehouse9 Copenhagen
21 May 2021 The Making of Pinocchio Take Me Somewhere
Cade & MacAskill look up at a tall structure that is similar to a tree
Photo by Niall Walker
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