Play about JK Rowling trans row changes venue amid safety fears

Terf will now be performed at the Assembly Rooms in Edinburgh

Kaplan said he believed the name of the show, which is shorthand for trans-exclusionary radical feminist, was central to Schaufuss’s uneasiness about hosting the play.

“Saint Stephens were not prepared and had not considered all the aspects around this,” he said.

Barry Church-Woods, Terf’s producer, added: “They never gave us the reason they felt they were not capable or able to present our play.”

The Times understands Saint Stephens offered the Terf team some compromises in order for the show to still go ahead. However Kaplan and Church-Woods said they were unable to come to an agreement with the venue, as they felt these would compromise the artistic freedom of the show. Instead, they claimed, they felt forced to find an alternative venue.

Derek Douglas, from Hill Street Theatre Venues, which held the contract between Saint Stephens and Terf, said “nobody is trying to censure anybody”, but the venue was asking for reassurances from the Terf team for legal reasons.

“The offer to put their production on in Saint Stephens is there for them and they have chosen not to go ahead with it,” he said. Schaufuss did not respond to requests for comment from The Times.

The show was originally called Terf C**t but after public backlash the production dropped the second half of the title

Rowling, who argues that trans women should be excluded from women’s only spaces, has been the subject of death threats, and was reported to the police for “misgendering” the broadcaster India Willoughby on Twitter/X. But the play is not a “hit piece” on the author, Kaplan insists. Rowling and Willoughby are both “absolutely welcome” to see the show, reflecting his previous statement that “everybody is welcome”.

Church-Woods, 48, described the play as “an amplification of the public discourse that is already happening”. “I think as an activist… [Rowling] gets off pretty scot-free in this play, to be honest,” he added. “But [Kaplan] was determined to write a balanced piece that hopes to encourage thinking about these issues before you react.”

After launching a petition to keep the show at Saint Stephens, it became apparent it was “absolutely untenable” to stay, Church-Woods said, and they turned to Assembly Rooms, a long-running Fringe venue, which they had first approached in January.

At that time, the show was still called Terf C**t and the venue said it didn’t have the necessary capacity to host it and were concerned about protests. The production later dropped the second part of the title after a public backlash. Church-Woods previously said: “It was admittedly a misstep on our part.”

JK Rowling has been the subject of death threats due to her views on transgender rights

ANGELA WEISS/GETTY IMAGES

At last year’s Fringe, Assembly Festival, the company’s overarching name for its multiple venues, was the subject of protests for hosting a Drag Queen Story Hour for children.

Dani Rae, the managing director of Assembly Festival, said they are pleased to support Terf. “It is extremely topical, which is what makes the Fringe great,” Rae said. The backlash is “understandable”, she added, but she said that the festival is no stranger to controversy. The former SNP MP Joanna Cherry had her Fringe show cancelled last year, and later reinstated, by a comedy club after staff said they were not comfortable with her views on transgender issues.

Security staff and management will be on hand at Assembly Rooms if protests disrupt the play.

Shortly after Terf was announced, Church-Woods received online abuse and threats. Trolls also found his mum’s Facebook post about the anniversary of his dead sister. “Just after a Telegraph article had been shared on Breitbart and Fox News, a bunch of people took over that post writing really horrible things like, ‘I bet you wish he was dead instead of her’,” he recalled.

In the play, Rowling — played by the actress Laura Kay Bailey — talks about the intention of words being powerful and gives the example: “When someone says they want to rape me with a broom handle, it’s not the words that hurt. It’s the fact that someone wants to rape me with a broom handle.”

“There’s some really interesting parallels to the violence that she experiences on social media and that is explored in the show as well,” Church-Woods added.

The show has a full cast now, after some difficulty filling the role of Rowling. Church-Woods stresses that while 90 actresses didn’t respond after being sent the script when they showed initial interest, this could have been because of “blind submissions” on casting websites.

Any would-be protesters are encouraged to come and see the play for themselves. “I imagine if they can sit through that first scene, they’re gonna be much less likely to want to heckle,” Kaplan said. It involves Radcliffe, Watson and Grint standing behind Rowling, wearing wolf masks while they read out tweets which threaten and show love to Rowling in equally rabid measure.

In real life, there is bad behaviour on “all sides” of the conversation with “mudslinging matches, name calling and threats of violence”, Church-Woods said. “I think trans rights are trans rights and they exist. But it should be supporting a conversation and helping to lead to understanding. These issues are quite contentious.

“We’re all people who struggle to shift one’s regard, heels dug into a belief. But I do think that art is one of the mediums you can use to actually help people really contemplate why that’s the case.

“The JK Rowling thing has been going on for five years now. It’s not going away and no one’s done this work really in any sort of major way. So it’s exciting.”

Kaplan added: “See the play. Come to your own conclusion. Challenge yourself, challenge me, challenge JK Rowling, but do it on the basis of the play.”