Transpose: JOY Pit Party – Barbican, London

Curator: Campbell X

Director: Tabby Lamb

For the fourth in the Transpose strand of the Barbican’s series of Pit Parties, which allows artists to curate their own shows of the material they want to see, the strand’s originator CN Lester hands over their curation duties to Campbell X, who puts together an evening that veers towards the joy in trans identity –something that can feel in short supply at the moment.

There is no escaping that these are tough times for trans folk at the moment – especially trans women of colour, who are disproportionately victims of violence, including murder. Campbell X’s opening film, with narration by a cast of Black actors including Martina Laird and Don Warrington, looks at the racial oppression of colonialism and Jim Crow through to the Black Lives Matter movement. But it finds defiance and strength in how, despite everything, Black voices and cultures have survived and thrived. There is hope there, that despite the current situation facing trans people, art will win through.

That sets up the rest of the evening nicely, with three onstage artists who each present very different styles of entertainment. Despite the breeziness of her inter-performance patter, Mzz Kimberley’s performances are the more serious of the bunch, the best and most moving of them a bold rendition of Billie Holliday’s Strange Fruit, replete with its images of lynched minorities hanging from the trees. Her other numbers, both the classic Wade in the Water and a contemporary number in the same style (I Know Where I’ve Been from Hairspray) sing a note of joyful defiance.

Visually impaired performer Ebony Rose Dark blends comedy and dance, first a piece with two of her long canes, each festooned with tinsel, which gain the impression of wings as she twirls around the stage. A later appearance, performing inside a giant, rainbow-coloured penis accompanied by Nina Simone’s Do I Move You (whose lyrics “When I touch you do you quiver/ From your head down to your liver” gain new meaning when partnered by a prancing tumescence) is totally ridiculous, and all the more hilarious for that.

But the biggest star of the evening is spoken word performer Felix Mufti, who performs in front of a series of videos he also features in. Mufti’s rap poetry is disarming, self-deprecating, filthy and fun; and seeing a trans man delight in being femme helps remind us that gender norms are best when they lie shattered on the floor.

The trio come together for a piece choreographed by Ebony, performed predominately while seated but using an ornate gilt frame to pose as if for a gloriously trans version of Instagram. Like all the best bits of the evening, it’s simple, fun – and above all, pure joy.

Continues until 2 April 2022