Pretty Butch by Tan Liting

What does it mean to be “feminine” or “masculine” today, and can you take on shades of both?

Five characters navigate life on the fringes as they grapple with gender definitions, whether by choice or by circumstance. At best, society disregards them. At worst, they are relentlessly harassed—even viciously bullied—for being different.

Inspired by the true stories of women (and men) who relate to being butch, Pretty Butch examines feminine masculinity that is often hidden from everyday life and explores the diversity of butchness through the experiences of different people who defy gender conventions.

(Source: M1 Singapore Fringe Festival 2017)

Pretty Butch was developed under Centre 42's Basement Workshop (now known as the Creation Residency). Read about Basement Workshop here.

Pretty Butch delves into the realms of feminine masculinity in an attempt to provide a glimpse into the private lives of women who relate to or identify as butch, those who transition through butchness, and the lives of individuals who surround them. Through the sharing of personal experiences and oral history, Pretty Butch aims to question the positions of those who are not bound by binaries, and seeks to locate them in Singapore’s society, a society that often regards them as odd and irrelevant. Pretty Butch is a performance on and of gender, exploring what it really means to be a butch woman by demystifying the label and problematizing the binary. Pretty Butch is about real people, and their real stories.

Reviews

• Pretty Butches, Walking Down the Fringe by Citizen Reviewer Cordelia Lee
• Navigating the conflict between self and social perceptions by Akshita Nanda, The Straits Times.

• Pretty Overstretched by Isaac Tan.

Production Information

• Production Facebook Page
• Tickets to the premiere
• Other performances at the M1 Singapore Fringe Festival 2017