I identify as non-binary, I guess, with a bit of a shrug,” says Travis Alabanza, with a fag in one hand and a bottle of San Pellegrino in the other. We’re speaking in a square in Bristol a few weeks before the 26-year-old writer and performer releases their first memoir, None of the Above: Reflections on Life Beyond the Binary. “I say ‘non-binary’ in the book, but I use the words ‘visibly gender-nonconforming’ far more,” they explain. Alabanza’s art is direct, as is the vocabulary they use to describe themself: “I’m more interested in the [word that describes] how I look because that’s why I experience the violence,” they say.
Alabanza has been a breath of fresh air in the world of theatre since they entered the scene in 2015. Two years later, in 2017, they became the youngest person ever to be awarded an artist residency at the Tate. Their most prolific work, the seminal 2018 play, Burgerz, has been performed around the world and drew on Alabanza’s experience of having a man throw a chicken burger at them on Waterloo Bridge. Their 2020 play, Overflow, was a never-timelier monologue built around trans safety in public toilets. Transforming experiences of violence and abuse into creative endeavours is not new for Alabanza and None of the Above is structured around seven phrases spoken to them – beginning with “so, when did you know?” and finishing with “this is for us, baby, not for them”.
