After a season in Melbourne, Thirty-Six will make its Sydney debut at QTopia in the heart of the city’s queer history. Thirty-Six is a fiercely intimate, cross-continental collaboration between two transgender writer-performers—UK theatre icon Jo Clifford (The Gospel According to Jesus Queen of Heaven) and Australia’s own Bayley Turner, known best for her work as an Intimacy Coordinator with Sydney Theatre Company and Griffin Theatre Company. Performances will run 8-18 July 2026.
“Touring this production is such a dream come true – it still hasn’t hit me yet that this is happening” says Turner. “Jo is such a trailblazer. It is a personal blessing and a career highlight to share our stories with more of our community and allies on Gadigal country. We’re so thankful to QTopia and Green Door Theatre Company for their support to get us there.”
“Reaching the age of thirty-six is considered the other side of a trans woman’s life expectancy. If you make it to that milestone then you’ve survived this old wives’ tale that trans people — for a number of reasons — don’t make it to those older ages. It’s significant because that’s when other trans people look to you for guidance, as I look to Jo.”
“I forget how long we’ve been sending drafts back and forth, from one end of the world to another. It’s been so joyous,” says Clifford. “I’ve been writing about trans issues since the nineties, and for a long time it was a lonely kind of thing to do. So what a joy to find in my own country and now in Australia such a gorgeous, rich, diverse and gifted trans/queer/non-binary community. Bayley says we’re creating a love song to our community: a love song made deeper and stronger by our encounters with death. A love song that needs to be heard now more than ever.”
“This show is such a tribute to the resilience and good humour of gender diverse people,” Turner concludes. “I hope after people see it they’re somewhat radicalised to get involved in the big picture of protecting trans lives, particularly trans people of colour and trans kids. We all deserve to expect more time than thirty-six years.”
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