Meet the artist turning trans history into cabaret. Introducing Fempath, AKA Mari Moriarty

Fempaths: Transistor Radio Hour is a kaleidoscopic cabaret fantasia combining live music, storytelling, comedy and political performance. Performed with a trans-led live band, the show transforms real voices from trans history and culture into original songs. It’s an unruly, deeply human celebration of trans expression and community. We chat to American transfem writer and performer Mari Moriarty about verbatim material, personal experience and queer cabaret.

What can you tell us about Fempaths: Transistor Radio Hour, and how did you know cabaret was the right form for it?

Fempaths: Transistor Radio Hour is a queer cabaret fantasia featuring original music and lyrics taken from found texts by famous trans icons (and their foes) throughout time. Think: Marsha P Johnson, sexual assault survivors’ rights activist Emma Sulkowicz, Kim Petras, 12 y/o trans kid Ari Bowman, my brother, my mother, the Reform Party, the RNC, twitter trolls and me (to name a few). The evening explores queer history, bathroom politics, deepthroating, tarot, Alzheimers disease, sexual assault, PTSD, immigration, fascism, addiction, disability and Sappho. It’s a show for trans rights and wrongs, sinners and slags, and all those in between!

I chose cabaret because of its immediacy first and foremost. When I was asked to perform at Joe’s Pub in just two weeks I was able to write and perform what would be one of the final songs of Fempaths: a musical answer to the question “Why are you leaving the USA?”. I mashed together pieces of “Cabaret” from Kander & Ebb with real life quotes from the U.S. government, my friends, and my family illustrating how transphobia and fascism have infected every part of American life. So many of the most prescient performances I’ve been inspired by have been from drag and cabaret performers creating rapid responses to the world around them. The informality of nightlife allows for more room to take risks and create work that can only be performed in the here and now. It’s also just more fucking fun.

Much of the show seems to resist neat categories or fixed narratives. What was the starting point for putting the show together?

I got tired of rolling my eyes sitting in the audience of about 101 trans pride cabarets. I felt like there was this trend of self censorship made by trans performers in cabaret to make ourselves softer and more palatable to cis audiences. Even Marsha P Johnson’s thornier side and history of advocating for sex worker’s rights is consistently erased from her legacy. I wanted to make a show where the contradictions and complexity of the trans experience weren’t a flaw but the feature. Yes, I’ll sing a moving song using the speech of 12 year old trans kid standing up to their school board but right after I’ll do a dumb erotic number where I deepthroat a series of phallic fruits. Trans people can be heroes and sluts. Both are important! The fun is putting them all together.

This isn’t your first time at the Fringe. How does returning with this work feel different from your earlier appearances?

My first time bringing my own show to the fringe was Jet of Blood back in 2018. It was a play about my own PTSD from sexual assault. At the end of each performance I outed my sexual perpetrator’s identity to the audience, writing his name on my naked body. As proud as I am of that show, it’s not the kind of work that makes people wanna come back again and again. Fempaths couldn’t be more different. Performing this show is a pure joy. It’s full of music, colour, and laughs. I’m not one to shy away from the difficult, but at the end of the day it’s medicine with a whole lot of sugar. It’s a love letter to my trans community and I couldn’t be more happy about it. Trans and NB folks go for free!

Your professional work as an intimacy director centres communication, boundaries and trust. What influence do those principles have on your theatre performances?

I spent an enormous amount of time working on how I can make this show inclusive for the most vulnerable. I’m thrilled to share that I'm collaborating with folks at Extant “the UK's leading professional performing arts company of visually impaired artists and theatre practitioners” to create integrated creative captioning for every performance. I’m invisibly disabled (when I’m not using my cane), and wrote most of the show while I was chronically ill. As I said before, and as I’ll say again, trans and non-binary folks go for free!

The show builds toward something collective as much as theatrical. What kind of atmosphere are you hoping audiences experience in the room?

I’m all shy and modest and shit, so here’s some nice things folks have said about the work-in-progress showings. From Broadway actor Noah Pyzik “I didn't take any photos because I was so engrossed in the BEAUTIFUL, transcendent, poignant, heartbreaking music and storytelling of @fempath. As the world burns and fascism rises, I instantly felt from the first song that there was no room more important tonight than this one telling powerful trans stories in such a gorgeous way. Everyone needs to see this show and be transformed." Roddy Bottum said "She's bold and fearless and intuitive and engaging. Her highs and lows are everything. Her one person show FEMPATHS was a riveting and optimistic exploration into where trans rights are headed. It was gorgeous and scary and funny and brave. Thank you Fempath". I couldn’t have said it better myself (and I won't).

What do you hope people carry with them after the show ends?

Fabulous show. Beautiful music. I’m changed forever. But my god Fempath was hot. Somebody should hire her and pay her lots of money, because she’s so friggen hot. Ya know what I’m gonna follow her on Instagram @fempath, and tell all my friends to do the same. Because she’s so hot, and that’s what hot people deserve.

Fempaths: Transistor Radio Hour will be performed at 8:45pm at Underbelly Bristo Square from 5th - 30th August at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival Booking link: https://underbellyedinburgh.co.uk/events/event/fempaths-transistor-radio-hour