Jo Clifford

A revolutionary queer ritual in which bread is shared, wine is drunk, and Biblical stories are reimagined by a transgender Jesus.Ten years on from this groundbreaking play's explosive premiere at the Tron Theatre, Glasgow, this unique book brings together the script with the story of its remarkable impact, resilience and enduring relevance as told by the family of artists and activists who made it happen.

‘Our duty is plain. To bring an end to peace.’ An empire gone wrong; an empire completely gone, in fact. A nation with delusional ideas of its place in the world, making poor choices, involved in clumsy foreign adventures, constantly on the edge of war. At home, class divides are stark yet all attention is on a Duke’s ceremonial marriage. And surging through the chaos, the absurdities of masculinity threaten to destroy everything. An epic fable set in the faraway Spanish Golden Age, Jo Clifford's play Losing Venice is a joyously original, witty take-down of dangerously daft machismo and the deranged behaviour of countries that have lost an empire and still not yet found a role… First seen at the 1985 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Losing Venice was revived at the Orange Tree, Richmond, in 2018.

Eve tells the story of a child raised as a boy, when she knew all along that was wrong. That child grew up to be one of the 10 Outstanding Women in Scotland in 2017. With trans rights again under threat, legendary playwright, performer, father and grandmother Jo Clifford tells a story both gentle and passionate, intimate and political, to remind us that the journey towards our real selves is one we all need to make.

Mary, a mother of two, is doing the ironing one Saturday morning when she feels something on her shoulder. It's the beginning of a series of events that will change things for ever. For every one. A re-imagining of Everyman, one of the oldest stories in English drama, Jo Clifford's bold and haunting play tells a deeply emotional and warmly funny story of a voyage into the heart of living – and of what it means to lose the people we love. Every One was first performed at the Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh, in 2010, and was revived in a new production by Chris Goode & Company at Battersea Arts Centre, London, in 2016.

A wildly imaginative, hilariously provocative and deeply moving play from one of Scotland's most important playwrights. The philosopher David Hume and the father of modern economics, Adam Smith, wake up in Edinburgh in the early twenty-first century. To their bewilderment, joy and horror, it is a world where all the knowledge they ever dreamt of is at everyone's fingertips and the utopia of a free-market economy is a reality. But at what cost to the planet and to humanity? With their fellow traveller, Eve, a Scottish everywoman, Hume and Smith embark on an extraordinary journey of enlightenment - from the concrete New Towns of Scotland's central belt, to Silicon Glen, ecstasy and the gay clubs of Edinburgh. Jo Clifford's play The Tree of Knowledge was first performed at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, in 2011.

A surprisingly positive look at how ordinary people deal with tragedy. An average family with everyday concerns – raising children, growing up, growing old. Everything changes when Death comes calling to claim Mary, the wife and mother. But gradually the shock and the outrage turn into an uplifting form of acceptance. Using the medieval play Everyman as its template, Every One asks questions of our own mortality and discovers how often hope and acceptance can be found in our darkest moments.