What do you think of when you think about the wild, wild west? John Wayne, Clint Eastwood, macho gunslingers and women in petticoats?

Well, the Seymour Centre and Siren Theatre Company’s production of Cowbois has flipped the usual narrative of the western genre on its head.

With everything from cowboys, tumbleweeds, singing, dancing, shootouts and even a live band onstage, it wraps up important themes about self in a fantastical and fun queer journey.

Set in a quiet frontier town, Cowbois follows the journey of (handsome) trans-masculine bandit Jack Cannon (played by Jules Billington), who is on the lam, as he arrives at the town’s saloon in search of a place to hide from treacherous bounty hunters.

All the men have been missing for a year, having been swept up in the gold rush, and only one drunken sheriff protects this town from harm. Equipped with only a gun (and a wink), Cannon’s arrival sparks a queer revolution in the heart of this sleepy town.

Seymour Centre and Siren Theatre Co’s Cowbois marks the Australian premiere of Charlie Josephine’s production, originally performed by the Royal Shakespeare Company in 2023.

“It explodes those traditional notions of gender by queering the Western genre… which is built upon hyper-masculinity,” said associate director Lara Lightfoot.

“We open with this world of repressed women whose lives are tightly controlled by this patriarchy and then having this kind of charismatic stranger riding into town… it’s this sort of catalyst to watch these characters explore parts of themselves that were previously forbidden.

“It’s quite brilliant how [Charlie] Josephine doesn’t present gender as binary… there is this beautiful fluid, joyful, embodied expression and that also comes across in the way that it is staged.

“It’s celebrating the liberation that comes when people stop performing those gender roles that society dictates and start living for and performing themselves.”

Desire becomes an act of rebellion and once the characters start exploring freedom and pleasure on their own terms, that’s when the social order begins to collapse.

Performed by a talented cast of 16, including Emily Cascarino, Faith Chaza and Branden Christine, the play is also a celebration of the Seymour Centre’s 50th anniversary, having opened in 1975.

Cowbois features singing, dancing, and original music by Clay Crighton in the intimate surrounds of theSeymour’s Reginald Theatre, interweaving ideas of gender, sexuality and ethnicity.

“In a time when gender and sexuality are still very politicised and also quite misunderstood, it’s almost like Cowbois is a call to arms but with glitter and tenderness… insisting joy itself can be a form of resistance,” Lightfoot told Central News.

“In Cowbois, sexuality isn’t just about romance or attraction. It’s got a political edge to it. Desire becomes an act of rebellion and once the characters start exploring freedom and pleasure on their own terms, that’s when the social order begins to collapse.”

They added that playwright Charlie Josephine uses sexuality to reveal the cost of repression but also the beauty of queer love.

“These relationships aren’t confined to labels, they show that love and lust can exist beyond boundaries, beyond those rules… this play is about having that internal freedom shown to the world,” said Lightfoot.

“For audience members who aren’t part of the LGBTQI+ community… who don’t have a lot of experience in that realm… [Cowbois reminds them] that progress is emotional as well as political and that art can be a space to rehearse new ways of living together. ”

Cowbois is playing at the Seymour Centre from November 20 to December 13.

Tickets: https://www.seymourcentre.com/event/cowbois/

Website: https://www.sirentheatreco.com/cowbois

Main image of Jules Billington by Pollyanna Nowicki