YouTuber and playwright Abigail Thorn explains why Shakespeare has ‘so much trans potential’

Considering the transphobic backlash to I, Joan, a non-binary retelling of the life of Joan of Arc, you might think deviating from gender norms in theatre was a new concept.

But, as YouTuber, playwright and actress Abigail Thorn reminds us, that simply isn’t the case.

“There’s so much transgender potential in Shakespeare,” Abigail, best-known for her YouTube channel, Philosophy Tube, which boasts more than 1.2 million subscribers, tells PinkNews.

“Especially because in Shakespeare’s time, all the roles would have been played by men.

“Shakespeare is full of jokes about people dressing up as the other gender and people being confused for the wrong person and double layers and meaning.

“The famous quote in Hamlet – ‘O that this too solid flesh would melt’ – is such a trans mood.”

Abigail watched the attacks on Shakespeare’s Globe theatre with interest – I, Joan made its debut just a month before her new play, The Prince, premieres.

“It was such a shame to see people say, ‘no, this kind of art should not be made’, when historical reinterpretation and the queering of things has been around for as long as there’s been art,” she says.

Abigail Thorn. (Supplied)

The Prince, which is being staged at London’s Southwark Playhouse from mid-September 2022, is an “Elizabethan sci-fi” which pulls from Henry IV Part One as well as other notable works.

When Sam (Joni Ayton-Kent) and Jen (Mary Malone) join forces with Henry ‘Hotspur’ Percy (Abigail), what follows is an empowering and magical tale of sexuality and gender awakenings, love found, love lost and what it means to be yourself.