17th November A rather queer view of Cowboys

Yesterday I went on a little jolly with TOM down to Stratford Upon Avon and thehome of the Royal Shakespeare Company see a performance of 'Cowbois', described as an LGBTQI+ friendly performance that would play with our expections of gender, roles and relationships in a Wild West Town. 

It was something TOM had spotted a while ago and although the 70 miles trip took us further than we would normnally go, it was well worthwhile.

Cowbois was set in town where all the men, save for an alcoholic sherriff and a young boy, have been gone for almost a year, feared lost in an explosion in a gold mine, leaving the town's womenfold to live out their lives not only fending for themselves but finding themselves too. Lives that get turned upside down and inside out when the notorious 'good bad trans guy' bandit and outlaw Jack Cannon rides into town

A melting pot of Americana, British Victorian values and 2023 exploration of gender identity and fluidity, it featured an ensemble cast that had the audience in the intimate Swan Theatre eating out of the palm of their hnands from the moment they came on stage, set out as an old fashioned saloon bar where there are only two rules, no guns and no politics. 

 Cowbois focuses on love in all its forms and despte its occasionally hard hitting themes remained glorioulsy funny, in large part due to the OTT characters on stage. Even when after the interval, their husbands return and the gleeful mood sours into something much darker and bullying for a while, it is a play / musical / face / drama /pantomime that shoots straight for the heart and finds its aim. 

Featuring fabulous costumes, great musical interludes and a constabnt quckfire of really funny dialogue, its core message brings tears to the eyes. After a tense final shootout against the masked hordes coming to burn the town and its people to the ground,  Jack looks out at the audience and delares., “We won, for now. But there’ll be more. There’s always more.” 

At a time when it feels like transphobia is at an all-time high, a play like Cowbois stands tall in reminding us people have a right to be seen and to live as they feel they ought to be seen and live. As to the question of whether TOM and I will be buying contrasting but matching cowboys outfits for each other Christmas, well that remains to be seen.