Playwright Bronte Lemaire interviewed non-binary people about their experiences with gender and identity and assembled their answers into a new work of theatre, Too. The result is a collection of vignettes grouped by themes such as race, body and sex. Aside from a brief introduction written by Lemaire, every sentence in Too is real words said by a real person.
Too is a work of verbatim theatre, a term which refers to works where the script is constructed from the recorded words of real people. The fact that everything in Too was said by a real person gives the words their power and a strong energy clearly felt by the audience. Unsurprisingly, since it comes from real life, Too traverses many different moods: funny, heartfelt, sad and emotional.
As a play, Too has not been traditionally ‘written’ in a sense. Lemaire’s role as writer is more one of interviewer, collector and assembler. They certainly deserve credit for the thematic way that the interview clips have been arranged into their vignettes.
Given the verbatim nature of Too, it means that the ensemble of performers are not playing characters in a traditional sense. Once Lemaire put together the script, it was then handed over to the ensemble who devised the work. The performers don’t seek to directly portray the original interviewees, but instead to bring their words to life in a new way.
The ensemble of performers, a cast of genderqueer actors, creatively represent each scene through their physical choices. One such scene on the theme of body sees three performers pose as fashion mannequins while another inspects and measures them.
The main theatrical method of realisation used by the show is projection through live coding performed by Jakob Schuster. The projections are a fantastic pairing with verbatim theatre; the interviewees’ words are in the performers’ mouths and the projections are on the performers’ bodies. This choice elevates the original interviews into an exciting work of theatre.
The design choice to dress the performers in white situates them as an almost-blank canvas on which they will be painted throughout the show by the projections.
A special shoutout to dramaturg Narii Salmon who stepped in at the last minute as a performer at the Opening Night performance.
The title of the show comes from a quote by sociologist Robin Bauer: ‘[Queer people] reported that they had faced the accusation throughout their lives that they were ‘too’ something (too dirty, too sexual, too feminine, too butch, too wild), or simply ‘too much’ without further specification.’ While this quote does help explain the choice of title for the show, without context the title really undersells how interesting the show is.
The nature of the vignettes is that some are naturally more interesting that others. The audience floats through the show rather than following a narrative with a tight structure. There’s no typical rise and fall. Too has been correctly staged as a one-hour show: enough time to explore its themes, and not enough to lose interest.
Rating: Recommend
Play: Too
Writer: Bronte Lemaire
Theatre: Tip Toe Theatre
Starring: Bronte Lemaire, Finn Corr, Jacinta Klassen, Marz Coope, Jade Breen, Joey Sheppard and Wajanoah Mascot Donohoe (with a surprise swing appearance by dramaturg Narii Salmon)
Runtime: 60 minutes (no interval)
Dates and venue: The MC Showroom (presented at the Melbourne Fringe Festival) until 10 October 2026