Welcome to The Making of Pinocchio! - an up-close behind the scenes look at the quest to make Pinocchio the perfectly imperfect trans masc narrative of our times. 

In a forest of real wood and fake wood, and real fake wood, and fake real wood, join the cast, crew and creators as they construct Pinocchio over and over again, shaking the boundaries between possible and impossible, reality and fantasy. Turning wood into flesh, boys into donkeys, and making that nose grow... the tricks of the trade will be revealed before your very eyes.

Artists and lovers Rosana Cade and Ivor MacAskill have been making The Making of Pinocchio since 2018, alongside and in response to Ivor’s gender transition. Glimpsed through a fictionalised making process, the artists’ real autobiographical experience meets the magical story of the little lying puppet who wants to be a real boy.

Enter a world of wildly queer utopic imaginings, conjured in a click and lock landscape where everything can change and everything can connect.

The Making of Pinocchio for Take Me Somewhere 2021 has been designed as a special one-off digital performance and will be re-worked and toured as a live performance from Spring 2022.

Cade & MacAskill are renowned queer live artists based in Glasgow, creating and performing work internationally over the past 2 decades.

They straddle the worlds of contemporary theatre, live art, queer cabaret, activism, film, children’s performance, site-specific, and socially engaged practices. Their show MOOT MOOT, commissioned by Fierce, The Marlborough and The Yard was part of Edinburgh Fringe 2019, Made In Scotland Showcase and British Council Showcase.

They regularly perform together in their anti-genre live art concept band ‘Double Pussy Clit F*ck’ which makes queer love with audiences across performance, club and music contexts. They also both work as individuals and in various other collaborations.

They are part of the Take Me Somewhere Artist Constellation.

Created and performed by Rosana Cade & Ivor MacAskill
Set, Prop & Costume Designer: Tim Spooner
Sound Designer: Yas Clarke
Lighting Designer & Production Manager: Jo Palmer
Producer: Mary Osborn for Artsadmin
Cinematographer: Kirstin McMahon
Camera operator: Alex Storey Gordon
Technician: Samuel Martin-Randerson & Sam Burnley
Assistant Stage Manager: Goose Masondo
Outside Eye: Nic Green
Creative Coach: Stacy Makishi
Video consultancy: Mamoru Iriguchi
Audio description: Juliana Capes
Captioning: Collective Text; Emilia Beatriz, Daniel Hughes with Rosana Cade, Yas Clarke, Ivor MacAskill, and Jamie Rea

A Fierce Festival, Kampnagel, Tramway & Vooruit Co-Commission.
Produced by Artsadmin.
Funded by Creative Scotland and Rufolf Augstein Stiftung
With support from The Work Room/Dianne Torr Bursary, Scottish Sculpture Workshop, National Theatre of Scotland, Live Art Development Agency, Gessnerellee, Mousonturm, Forest Fringe, West Kowloon Cultural District, LGBT Health & Wellbeing Scotland and Glasgow Zine Library.

Photo/video: Niall Walker