The Making of Pinocchio

A Tale of Love and Transition

From the moment he comes to life in Geppetto’s workshop, Pinocchio is driven by the desire to become a “real boy”. In The Making of Pinocchio, the wooden marionette’s quest for identity becomes the perfect guise for Rosana Cade and Ivor MacAskill to explore the latter’s gender transition. The creative duo, who are also a couple in real life, cleverly and candidly transform the puppet’s adventures into a fabulously inventive film shoot that reflects a unique—even magical—experience of the world.

Moving between personal testimony and formal experimentation, full of hilarious and heart-breaking, tender moments, The Making of Pinocchio draws us into a fantastic universe where our perceptions are constantly distorted and dismantled. Using what’s happening on stage to create new possibilities on screen, Cade, MacAskill and their collaborators deploy a playful world of images and sounds in a theatrical language that is very much their own.

Produced by Artsadmin
Created by Rosana Cade + Ivor MacAskill
Performed by Rosana Cade + Rachel Gammon + Jo Hellier + Ivor MacAskill
Written by Rosana Cade + Ivor MacAskill + Jamie Rea
Set, Props and Costume Design Tim Spooner
Sound Design Yas Clarke
Camera Jo Hellier
Lighting Design Jo Palmer
Video Jo Hellier + Kirstin McMahon
Producer Dr. Nora Laraki + Mary Osborn – Artsadmin
Production Manager Sorcha Stott-Strzala
Assistant Stage Manager Rachel Gammon
Outside Eye Nic Green
Movement Advisor Eleanor Perry
Subtitles Rosana Cade + Collective Text + Ivor MacAskill + Jamie Rea
Subtitles preparation Yas Clarke + Daniel Hughes
Surtitles translation Luba Markovskaia

Commissioned by Fierce Festival (Birmingham) + Kampnagel International Summer Festival (Hamburg) + Tramway (Glasgow) + Viernulvier (Ghent)

With the support of Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts (Brighton) + Battersea Arts Centre (London) + LIFT (London) + Take Me Somewhere (Glasgow) + Creative Scotland + Arts Council England + Rudolf Augstein Stiftung

Development support from The Work Room – Diane Torr Bursary (Glasgow) + Scottish Sculpture Workshop (Aberdeen) + National Theatre of Scotland (Glasgow) + Live Art Development Agency (London) + Gessnerallee (Zurich) + Mousonturm (Frankfurt) + Forest Fringe + West Kowloon Cultural District (Hong Kong) + LGBT Health & Wellbeing Scotland (Glasgow)

Premiered at Kampnagel International Summer Festival, Hamburg, on May 12, 2022

Presented in association with Conservatoire d’art dramatique de Montréal

Written by Sara Fauteux
Translated by David Dalgleish