The Dame and The Actor

“In creating this film my intention was to tell a story of someone that was tired of pretending to be someone he wasn’t, pretending to be a pantomime dame when that’s not what he wants to be. It was written at a time when I felt the same way, I felt so hard that I had to put on a face for other people, and so writing this was my way of expressing that. I also wanted to have a story that encapsulated this wonderful and varied world of entertainment we inhabit. In theatre, gender is very regularly messed with, especially in pantomime. Things that have been done for centuries by actors and pantomime dames, are suddenly issues when it comes to queer people. And the Dame himself is a part of this, shunning the queerness that comes with being a dame, insisting that he is instead a “legitimate actor”.
This film also highlights the evolution of the industry, the older actor from a bygone era, still clinging on to his past successes. His bigotry protected by the career he hates. Comforted but ultimately moved on by the present, shown in James Williams. The more progressive actor, socially aware but still reflecting the straight white male of the past. Both confronted by the future in Julia Price. An outwardly queer individual that challenges the Dame, but even they continue to embody the limited progression in our industry, allowed to be queer, but still resembling the actors of the past, middle to upper-class and white.”