Inverness panto star Colum Findlay on the ‘risk’ of making Poison Ivy non-binary in Jack and the Beanstalk
Attendees at this year’s pantomime at Eden Court may have noticed something a little bit different about the production of Jack and the Beanstalk.
It is only a subtle change, but this year the character of Poison Ivy – traditionally played by a woman – is non-binary and uses they/them pronouns.
The tweak is reflective of the real-life identity of actor Colum Findlay, who plays Poison Ivy.
Colum, in Inverness for the first time as one of the main characters in the panto, started to realise they might be non-binary during a previous production of Sunshine on Leith during the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
The arts would stereotypically be an industry where the LGBTQ+ community are more free to be themselves, but that does not always translate on to the stage or screen.
Knowing that a family show such as the Eden Court pantomime may be the first time many people come across a non-binary person, then, is not lost on Colum.
“When I did my audition, I was the only non-assigned female at birth person, so I was a bit confused when I walked in,” they explained.
“Then in the first draft after I was cast, all the pronouns were changed to they/them.
“There actually wasn’t a conversation about it. I got my first draft of the script, and clocked that the pronouns had changed.
“Honestly, at first I was a little disappointed, because I was looking forward to playing a girl. I thought it was cool that they trusted me to hold that and play a woman, but the more I sat with it I thought it’s actually better this way and does more this way.
“Panto is a family thing – it’s for everyone, but it’s primarily for kids, and for them to see a non-binary character who isn’t necessarily good is healthy. I can be non-binary, and the villain, and still give some of these kids the chance to see someone like me on stage for the first time.
“It’s interesting, because most of the time I don’t feel much of anything about it in the moment. It’s just how I live my life – I’m not going through something cathartic on stage in that moment, because that’s also how I wake up and make my coffee in the morning.
“I’m also just on stage doing my job. I’m loving it, don’t get me wrong, but I’m at a point in my journey where my gender doesn’t spring to mind in every moment of the day.
“While playing Ivy, I have to push and pull with that because I’m not playing a girl, and I’m not trying to play a girl. I’m playing Ivy, who is feminine in moments and not in others.”
Panto in particular has a history of gender swapping on stage.
The panto dame is usually a man in drag, while traditionally the main hero is a woman playing a man.
While in theory that would leave the door open to further changes, how that tradition has developed over the years meant that Colum actually felt it meant there was more of a risk to make Poison Ivy non-binary.
“I think there’s nuance to it,” they continued.
“There’s an open door to meddling with gender in panto, in that we’ve always had the panto dame.
“It’s sadly dying out, but in a lot of productions there also used to be the principal boy. You don’t get that often anymore, but it used to be everywhere, so the door is open to meddle with gender.
“The one that was used to comic effect has lived on, and the one that wasn’t has slowly died out, so I think it’s a risk bringing someone in who is also meddling with gender in a way and not make a joke out of it.
“If you watch a play and you see someone non-binary, regardless of what your opinion of that means, you can still see it and understand what it is.
“In this format, I think there is a risk that it doesn’t translate, because you already have men on stage dressed as women and women on stage dressed as men.
“That in itself is also very binary, so to have someone on stage who is breaking all of that is brilliant and I love it.”
For Colum personally, getting to the point where they are comfortable appearing on stage as non-binary and discussing it in their personal life has taken years.
After trying out different labels and gender presentations, they have landed in a space where they are confident simply being themselves.
The LGBTQ+ community have been positioned at the centre of the “culture wars” that so often dominate discourse in mainstream media and on social media, but for Colum most of the time it comes down to a simple matter of respect.
“When someone does correct you, it’s not an attack,” they added.
“At the end of the day, regardless of how you feel, I think it just comes down to basic respect of other people.
“Say your name is Samantha, and you say ‘actually I go by Sam’, but then I keep calling you Samantha – that’s rude. Why would you do that? At the end of the day it’s just disrespectful regardless of any other identifier.
“It’s just impolite, and when you’re impolite to someone they are well within their rights to go ‘well, actually, no’.
“There is a tendency to paint people who are othered as defensive and angry, and sadly part of that is true because it’s scary and it makes you feel very vulnerable to be othered in every space you’re in.
“It’s one thing when you are othered in some spaces and not in others, abut it’s different when you feel different everywhere.
“There’s this notion that the queer community are always on the defensive, they are always angry and loud. There’s a reason for that – a lot of us are, and a lot of us are hurt. That doesn’t mean it’s not safe for a person from outside that community to ask questions.
“The vast majority of people just want to be understood, and opening doors to have a conversation about that makes it very rare that people will get angry or upset about that.
“What they will get angry and upset about is intentional disrespect. If you take the pronoun thing, regardless of how you feel about your own pronouns, if someone else asks you to use a set of pronouns treat it like a nickname.
“If you intentionally still use the old one, you are being rude. Behaviour has consequences. If you’re not polite and kind to people, then they are within their rights to fly off at you a little.
“It shouldn’t be hard to be kind. It’s something we should all be putting the work into all the time, trying to be nice to each other.”
