Celebrate Gender Euphoria With “Too Much Hair,” A Musical Cabaret At The Loft

“Too Much Hair” is a new musical cabaret celebrating the joy of being oneself and expressing gender diversity premiering on Friday, February 4th as part of Summer at Q. Co-creators Ania Upstill (they/them) and William Duignan (he/him) describe it as “part Queer disco, part house gig, all euphoric chaos.”

“Too Much Hair” came about when Upstill and Duignan both acted in the Court Theatre’s sold-out season of Once in July 2021 and discussed the need for more stories about Queer New Zealanders. “Once featured two Queer characters, and recent conversations around transgender representation in the Court’s production of Things I Know to be True showed us that audiences are keen to engage with stories about gender diversity,” said Duignan.

Internationally, musical theatre has a rich history of telling LGBTQAI+ stories with vitality and playfulness, and Upstill and Duignan believe that the time is ripe to create new works celebrating stories of Aotearoa New Zealand’s own gender diverse community.

Upstill says, “We have a unique opportunity to harness the creativity of emerging performers, encouraging Queer creators to create new work that celebrates their experiences and allows gender diverse New Zealanders to see and hear themselves on stage.”

“These stories are important, not just for audiences, but also for performers, who often struggle to find work that reflects their histories, identities, experiences, and the worlds they live in.”

“Too Much Hair” takes its name from the poem LITANY by Hone Tuwhare, which Upstill and Duignan discovered while visiting Ralph Hotere: Ātete at Te Puna o Waiwhetū (Christchurch Art Gallery). In the poem, God is described as “A faceless /hermaphrodite /in turns /displaying/ much lovingness/ much stern-ness/ too much hair.”

Duignan says that “Too Much Hair” can refer both to female-bodied people who choose to embody “masculine” stereotypes, as well as to male-bodied people who choose to present in “feminine” ways. “We have all, at one moment or another, felt that we’ve just got too much bloody hair,” says Upstill.

Auckland is invited to celebrate gender euphoria with “Too Much Hair,” a musical paradise for Thems, Femmes, Mens, and everyone in-between at the Loft on FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 4th / 8:45pm and SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 5th / 8:45pm.

Tickets are available at https://www.qtheatre.co.nz/shows/too-much-hair.

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