Thinking outside (and above and around) the gender box at Fringe Fest

In true underground DIY spirit (and very reflective of our moment), Exit Theatre‘s annual independent 15-play thespianic onslaught Fringe Festival (Fri/8-August 24) offers everything from “I’m Mad as Hell and I’m Going to Take It Just a Little Bit Longer” to “Due To an Unforeseen Apocalypse This Will Be Our Final Performance”—with everything from parlor seances and generational trauma to frenzied improv and voices of the formerly incarcerated in between.

One particular performance caught my eye. “Box [M]” (August 9, 16, and 24) offers one of those incredibly unique Fringe Fest experiences, “using visual storytelling, dance, circus and acro-pole tell an unconventional duo show about a father’s relationship with his trans son.” The piece—directed by Genie Cartier, performed by Landyn Endo and Os Roxas, and presented by Flying Rabbit Circus—feels so relatable in these hyper-genderized trans-backlash times.

“The underlying idea of the show was born from that one part on official forms like passports, where you have to state your gender,” Endo told me over Zoom. “There’s the two boxes, the ‘M’ and the ‘F,’ and sometimes the ‘X.’ You have to declare yourself one of them before you can do anything, it’s this hurdle you face right away. I can’t get my broken arm checked until I declare my gender as one of these. It’s something that I run into all the time as a trans person. It’s just very confining, and it affects your personal safety and how you can exist in this society.

“Genie and I were talking about having to fit so much of yourself into this box, like ‘M,”’ Endo continued. “What does it look like to try and operate from within it? What are the things that society requires of you, if you choose to claim that identity? And what are the risks inherent if you choose to stray from that? How possible is it to define masculinity on your own terms? How possible is it to deconstruct, you know, toxic masculinity from how you’ve been socialized to understand it?”

Those are all huge questions, all asked throughout a wordless, highly personal, physical theater performance. The story is a mix of Endo’s (playing the son) and Roxas’ (the father) true life stories: “It follows my life in the piece from when I’m four and just figuring out gender, all the way through to full adulthood and my relationship with my father, who wants to accept his child” said Endo. “How can he protect his child in a world that is not going to be kind? What are the coping mechanisms?

“And it’s all told through the lens of being Asian American—it’s the story of being brought up in an immigrant household. What are the ways in which assimilation is a survival technique? What are the coping mechanisms? How does having a trans child potentially put an immigrant family, and that child, at risk in this society?”

Another query springs to mind: How the heck are the performers conveying all this without using any words? “It’s a wonderful challenge,” Cartier said. “As you just heard, it’s a lot of heavy concepts that are pretty complex. I don’t think every person is going to watch the show and have the exact same interpretation, I think people will see different things in the imagery. But both of the performers are incredibly expressive, in their faces and their bodies, you are caught up in their beautiful storytelling.

“The show creates its own internal logic, with symbolism used throughout the show to guide the audience through. But my goal was never to be didactic, like everyone has to watch this and come away with the same story. That’s the beauty of like doing a show like this, is that people can see different things in it and get to decide like how they feel. I think the most important thing is, if people come away feeling something, and even feeling changed by it, that’s the ultimate goal.”

“Box [M]” was acclaimed when it was shown in Florida, and the team hopes to send it out on the road to more places that don’t have San Francisco’s reputation for gender-diverse acceptance. “It was very much a ‘we’re not in Kansas anymore experience,'” Endo said of the Florida run. “When we told people we were going to performa there, they were asking us questions like ‘What safety precautions are you taking?’ Do you have someone at the door checking people’s bags?’ Things I wouldn’t even think about here in San Francisco.

“I usually do a little Q&A at the end to go through some of the symbolism and answer questions, like ‘What were you doing in that section with the flashlights?,'” Endo said. “There was a woman at the Florida performance who had a lot of questions because she didn’t know that trans men existed. Like that you could be designated female at birth and then live as a man. This was her very first exposure to that, and so the viewing experience for her was something we didn’t even imagine when making this piece. It was enlightening. We’re hoping to take this to places like Britain, where there’s so much legislation going on against trans people.”

Cartier added, “There’s a feeling of danger underlying this piece, of risk—in telling it, and reflected in the actual performance. That’s why I love circus, it’s such a unique and wonderful medium of storytelling. The performers are balancing, vaulting up in the air, doing acrobatics, and the danger of the story is made literal. And you live it. You watch it live! You’re part of the tension that’s being expressed through this story, and everyone becomes a part of it.”

BOX [M] plays August 9, 16, and 24 at Exit Theatre, SF, as part of SF Fringe Fest. More info here.