Transmission: Accessible And Whimsical Performance Merges Drag And Satirical Character Comedy To Take Aim At Transphobic Rhetoric

4 Stars

An ambitious hybrid performance, Transmission merges drag and satirical character comedy. Writer-performer Nelly Kelly, plays fictional politician ‘Big Jimmy’, who’s on a mission to free Scotland from the so-called ‘Trans Cult’. The show is structured through a series of comedic sketches and musical numbers, presented through a mix of live performance and video recordings. Each sketch demonstrates a different one of big Jimmy’s bumbling attempts to spread transphobic rhetoric to the Scottish public. 

Though the show is branded ‘darkly comedic’, Big Jimmy never comes across as a genuinely dangerous character – he is more like a bigoted Wile E. Coyote, nefariously scheming but always ultimately foiled by his own sheer incompetence. 

He seems modelled more on the anti-queer but laughably ineffective Scottish Family Party than on those who have actually authored ‘Scotland’s shift from world-leading on LGBT+ rights to fertile ground for the anti-trans movement.’ Those more influential figures certainly still feature in the show – soundbites give us the voices of Trump, Vance and Starmer, while Jimmy claims to be big mates with JK Rowling – but the show’s focus is kept pretty firmly on this ridiculously minor politician. 

There is not quite as much for Kelly to sink their teeth into with Jimmy than if they had chosen to parody a more prominent figure, but the clumsiness undermining Jimmy’s menace is very refreshing in a world where trans people already have enough to worry about without inventing further threats. Indeed, the show seems to be an alternative, more light-hearted kind of political satire, one more focused on giving the audience hope than belittling our biggest political opponents. 

The show’s tremendous accessibility offerings make it an even more pleasant experience – not only is Transmission live-captioned and BSL-interpreted, but broken up by self-care breaks, during one of which Tunnock’s teacakes are passed into the audience.

Disguised as an amenity unrelated to the show itself, this last provision sets up Transmission’s greatest punchline- the attempted assassination of Big Jimmy through projectile teacake. That moment, above all, is the ultimate testament to Kelly’s wonderfully whimsical take on political satire. 

Transmission at Summerhall Arts, 18^th August til 23^rd August