What we said: “With handfuls of glitter, music, callbacks and wordplay-based gags, what starts off feeling like pure panto is actually a panto-about-panto, in particular its ability to capture and, at its best, critique the ever-changing politics, attitudes and topics of its time. From playing “sexless” Silly Billys to becoming a dame at the ancient age of 26 to a playwright determined to do things differently, Johnny McKnight is open about having written lines in the “toxic 2000s” that he wouldn’t now... With 18 dames behind him, it’s a reminder that we’re all made up of past versions of ourselves, their successes and flaws, but also the power of shows (and reviews) to reflect, amplify and shape reality and turn it into whatever we want it to be.”
00:00I'm here with Fringe First Award Johnny McKnight for his show She's Behind You at the Traverse. Hi Johnny.
00:06Hi there, how you doing? Brilliant. Can you tell me a little bit about the origins of your show? I know it started out as a lecture.
00:11It started as a lecture. John Tiffany had curates a series of lectures for Glasgow Uni and Royal Scottish Academy and Royal Contemporary, I should call it.
00:21And it got a really great reception. It was a lecture just looking at Pantledames. It was a history of Pantledames, rather my history.
00:29I get such a really good reaction from Traverse in National Theatre Scotland.
00:34And this year we've sort of just, in a whirlwind of it, appropriately, because I'm playing Dorothy on a gale, like a bit of a gale whirlwind.
00:41We've just managed to get it on at the festival this year as part of the Traverse programme.
00:46So it's a kind of look back in celebration of the Pantledame and sort of my coming of age story of finding yourself as a man while being on stage in a dress.
00:56Brilliant. I saw it at the first preview of the Traverse and it was amazing. I want to see the whole thing.
01:00Oh, cheers.
01:01So yeah, absolutely great. And yeah, in terms of winning the Fringe First Award, how does that feel?
01:04Amazing. I think the last thing I won was an annual at a Glen Michael Cavalcade Roadshow.
01:10So really overwhelming, really unexpected and a total honour and a privilege.
01:15And just a brilliant thing to like celebrate the whole team that I've worked so hard to put this together in every aspect to the people that have produced the show and everything.
01:23So yeah, really overwhelming and really grateful.
01:26Great. Well, thank you so much for being here today.
