Other tongues

>> Trans performer Lazlo Pearlman gets naked with language and gender at the Edgy Women Festival

MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE: Pearlman

by ANDREA ZANIN

“I found out that in French, cock—la bite—is female, and vagina—le vagin—is male… and a piece was born.” So says Lazlo Pearlman, a London, U.K.-based female-to-male transgender performance artist whose solo piece, Madame Pierre’s Other Tongue, will enjoy its world premiere at this year’s edition of Studio 303’s Edgy Women Festival. The piece is a multilingual, gender-blurred work he describes as “a surreal cabaret about cunning linguists.”

Even with a theme as endlessly flexible as gender, there’s always a danger of getting repetitive. But Pearlman isn’t worried. “I’m not interested in telling my personal story, though of course it always is [personal]. I’m not saying, ‘When I was a little girl it was difficult and then I figured out I was a boy and it was fine.’ Nor am I saying ‘Gender is so oppressive and if it were just gone, we’d all be happy.’ That seems to be most of what gender-queer artists are telling in terms of stories, and I’m bored with it. I want to take it to the next step. I’m more interested in picking things up and saying, ‘Look, when you turn it over, it looks funny from this angle.’”

Before transitioning from female to male, Pearlman spent much of his time on stage cross-dressing to play male characters all over the States, from Nathan Detroit in Guys and Dolls with the Provincetown Players to all the male roles in Medea, Macbeth and A Comedy of Errors with Dan Savage-led theatre company Greek Active in Seattle.

Transition piece

In the late ’90s, Pearlman became the man he is today, and he has since created such notable works as the first female-to-male short comedy film, Unhung Heroes, and earned an MFA in actor-created physical theatre at the London International School of Performing Arts.

In case you’re wondering how a guy, transgender or not, fits in at a women’s performance festival, this year’s Edgy Women is showcasing female-bodied masculinity in many forms, among others by featuring gender-queer Vancouver-based storyteller Ivan Coyote and New York City’s bona fide bearded lady Jennifer Miller.

Pearlman weighs in: “If Miriam Ginestier hadn’t pitched it to me as an FTM-focused Edgy, I would never have suggested that I come to perform at a woman-centred festival. Because I am not a woman. I was a woman—I did live as one for 30 years. So you could argue that it’s not completely out of my realm. But I try not to go to women’s space unless I’m expressly invited and it makes sense for me to be there.”

Unhung hero

Pearlman’s signature move is to casually disrobe from the waist down while performing, making abundantly clear that he is, indeed, an unhung hero. “I take my pants off on stage because at this point in my artistic career, it’s important to me that the fact that I am trans be visible in my work. Because it changes the work. A work is inevitably different based on who we perceive the performer to be.”

Nonetheless, there are many ways to talk about transgender bodies; dropping trou is only one. But Pearlman believes it’s most effective in his particular case. “I don’t want to say it with words, in part because nobody believes me, in part because it’s boring. So how do I say this? The only way that I’ve found is to take off my pants. And while I’m no spring chicken and I don’t have the best body in the world, I’m not shy about being naked on stage. It seems like it’ll be the hardest thing in the world to do but it’s so easy. And it always works.”

It might seem odd for an American-born, UK-based performer to tackle the gendered quirks of the French language, but Pearlman feels the French connection.

“I’ve been a Francophile since I was a little girl, and I’ve wanted to be bilingual forever. That ease of fluidity between language, effortlessly switching from one to the other… there’s something so compelling to me about it.” And of course, what better audience than Montreal to appreciate how that fluidity can harmonize with gender-bending?

For Pearlman, it’s obvious: “I do think there’s a connection somehow. I don’t consider myself to be male or female, gay or straight. I’m a multiple of everything so there’s gotta be something in there for me.”

Edgy Women takes place March 3–16,
with Pearlman in the house starting March 8.
Madame Pierre’s Other Tongue premieres March 15.
Details and tickets at www.edgywomen.ca.