Time for the Tranny Hotel

Liverpool has been chosen as the only British city outside London to feature in the European-wide Exchange Radical Moments live art festival, taking place on November 11 -- 11.11.11 -- across the continent. And the city's contribution will be like nothing we have ever seen before. Tranny Hotel is a weekend-long celebration of transgender arts, which will take place at the city’s Adelphi Hotel over the weekend of November 11 - 13. The event is a UK premiere and also forms part of this year’s Homotopia festival. Tranny Hotel will see a plethora of transgender artists from across the globe perform a wealth of different works in numerous spaces around the hotel, from bedrooms and suites, to staircases, hallways and function rooms. The three day event will also see concert style performances taking place featuring some of the world’s best transgender artists. Acts include accomplished Scottish transsexual playwright Jo Clifford, who brings her controversial piece The Gospel According to Jesus Queen of Heaven. The piece will see small audiences meeting and interacting with Queen Jesus in a hotel room throughout the weekend. Spanish artist Regina Fiz will perform her critically acclaimed piece The Ritual Wedding, which also demands an intimate audience in an intimate space.  Norwegian artist Ane Lan brings the most personal of experiences to the hotel with her piece Irma’s Room, inspired by Sigmund Freud. Small audiences of just one or two people will experience the piece at a time, making it completely unique each time it is performed. Other artists include Canadian folk performer Rae Spoon, drag, cabaret and performance artist Jonny Woo, Tom Shaw, whose piece Drag Mountain will see the stairways and halls covered in a string of dresses before Shaw wears them simultaneously, and American artist Lazlo Pearlman will perform his piece Dance Me To The End of Love, which explores intimacy, love, partnering and the transgender body. A full line up of performers and acts will be announced shortly. Organiser Mandy Romero (pictured) said: "Plays, concerts, strange and wonderful encounters in hotel rooms, most of them in the famous Adelphi Hotel – there’s something for everyone in Tranny Hotel. I hope that this will be one of those moments when transgender art moves to a new level and I’m proud that it’s all happening in Liverpool”. Exchange Radical Moments is a massive live art event that will see 11 happenings taking place across Europe in countries such as Belgium, Austria, Germany, Sweden and Moldova, simultaneously on Friday 11.11.11, and will all be beamed onto the web to create one large virtual festival. Romero adds: “Not many projects made it into Exchange Radical Moments which is such an important festival and I’m sure that our weekend of performance and events will be a good thing for Liverpool, for the arts and for the transgender community. "It’s time that the presence of transgender people and the performers who express their world had the positive attention and appreciation they deserve and for three days in Liverpool we will do our best to advance the cause.”  A weekend pass to the Tranny Hotel is £20. To book, or for more information, go to www.tranny-hotel.com