She Who Must Not Be Named

Overview

A ritual summoning by the Bouffon of the world’s most beloved auth-, I mean the most powerful dark wiz-, I mean queen of the TERFs-, I mean the de facto leader of the “Gender Critical” Movement. Truly the Chosen One. Her powers have faded, but are quickly growing, and she needs your support before it’s too late. You may know her as J.K. Rowling. Or maybe Robert Galbraith. But we just call her She Who Must Not Be Named.

Coming out of their training at the Pig Iron School, She Who Must Not Be Named is the collision of Bouffon, the Grotesque, and the Mystère. It attempts to grapple with the profound harm that J.K. Rowling has done and continues to do to the Trans community, as well as the queer community at large. Harry Potter was a very large and important part of my childhood, and a big part of this work is reckoning with releasing the franchise from my life. Bouffon as a form allows us to reveal and explore hypocrisy through absolute mockery. It can take the biggest bastards of society and hold their feet to the fire. She claims that “this witch doesn’t burn,” but we’ll see about that.

I solemnly swear that I’m up to no good.

About the Artist

Mitchell Nease (He/They) makes works of physical performance encompassing various forms. Ignited by constraint, they create raging fires that are simultaneously oceans; collisions of fluidity, virtuosity, and humanity through a queer lens. Poems of the body that live in the limbo between escapism and confrontation.

Currently in the final semester of Pig Iron School's MFA program in Devised Performance, this is their first time producing their original work and their first time performing in Philly Fringe.