I Was Always Here

Kit Miles brings I Was Always Here to The Lens Studio at Portsmouth Guildhall this November. It's a verbatim play, which means the script is built from real words rather than a fictional script — in this case, personal narratives gathered in creative workshops, interviews and conversations with trans and gender-expansive people across Hampshire and beyond.

That's the core of it: the show is made from the actual voices of trans people in the local area, and it's presented by Theatre For Life in collaboration with Beyond Reflections. It's an intergenerational story, and the company is made up of LGBTQ+ theatremakers. The piece mixes music, digital storytelling and cabaret, so it's not just people standing on a stage speaking — there's a fair bit of performance and sound woven in.

As for the stories themselves, they reach back further than you might expect. The play draws on lives that history often forgets, and the references span a wide range: the first trans surgeon, the green rooms of the 1990s club scene, 1920s speakeasies and gothic literature. It's a journey through trans+ histories, and the project was supported by funding from The National Lottery Community Fund.

There are three performances to choose from: Monday 2 November at 8.00pm, and Tuesday 3 November with a matinee at 2.00pm and an evening show at 8.00pm. Tickets are between £14.85 and £18.20, and that includes a 13% booking fee. A couple of practical things to keep in mind: anyone aged 14 and under needs to be accompanied by an adult aged 18 or over, and no cameras or tablets are allowed inside.