Cowbois: 7 first-look production images from ‘big queer cowboy show’
"This play is a love letter to the real-life trans masculine people in history whose stories have been ignored or erased"
Queer cowboy show Cowbois is firmly underway in its month-long run at The Swan Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon.
As the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) show continues, a selection of stunning production images from the rollicking queer Western have been shared with Attitude.
A synopsis reads: “In a sleepy town in the Wild West, the women drift through their days like tumbleweed. Their husbands, swept up in the goldrush, have been missing for almost a year and show no sign of returning.
“In fact, the town is almost cut off from outsiders entirely, with only one drunken sheriff for protection. That is until handsome bandit Jack Cannon, a trans masc cowboy, swaggers up to the town’s saloon, inspiring a gender revolution.”
“I wanted to write about sexy trans masculine cowboys and queer working-class women”
The creator of Cowbois is award-winning writer and actor Charlie Josephine.
Some of their most recent work includes I, Joan (Shakespeare’s Globe, 2022) and One of Them Ones (Pentabus).
Josephine recently spoke to Attitude about where the inspiration for Cowbois came from.
“Cowbois a big queer cowboy show. It’s full of everything you’d expect from a western, but our lone ranger – Jack Cannon – is a gender outlaw who fights patriarchy and inspires a revolution in a town full of women.
“It’s an exploration of honest desire in bodies free from the male gaze. When you’re given space to stop worrying about being wanted, and connect with what you actually want. That’s when things get really juicy.
“I love cowboys and I wanted to be one growing up. As a young non-binary kid, searching for language to express my trans truth, and desperately seeking role models, cowboys were cool. I enjoyed using the iconic gesture and pose of a cowboy, the sexiness and swagger, as inspiration.
“Cowbois a big queer cowboy show”
“This play is a love letter to the real-life trans masculine people in history whose stories have been ignored or erased. I also wanted to disrupt the Hollywood version of cowboys. The white cis straight men who are often misogynistic and racist. Instead, I wanted to write about sexy trans masculine cowboys and queer working-class women.
“Theatre can sometimes feel very pale, male, and stale, and I’m delighted our show is challenging that. It’s mad exciting to be invited to make this big queer show with the RSC. We’re enjoying the collaboration with the team here, and are also grateful for the support from Gendered Intelligence and All About Trans. The UK press is so loud with its transphobic violence, so I’m grateful to have the chance to write something unapologetically joyful.”
Cowbois is playing at The Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon from Saturday 14 October to Saturday 18 November 2023. Get tickets here.