Bj McNeill is a gay performer and theatre maker whose work explores queerness, gender, and love. Loverboy’s Fallon Gold caught up with Bj to talk about his new work Torn Apart (Dissolutions), currently playing in London.

What’s your background?
I grew up in Australia, by the beach. I did a lot of dance, theatre and art as a kid, then I went into more screen acting as a teenager. After coming to London for the first time about 10 years ago I went back to theatre and assistant directed my first show at NIDA in Sydney whilst I was studying acting there. Around that time, I also started writing. I ended up attending drama school in London to study acting, but these days I direct and write mostly. In the last few years, I’ve discovered that I’m more of a theatre maker as opposed to solely a performer. On stage, I work with a performance collective Balloons Theatre who recently performed The Rules of Inflation at Edinburgh Fringe.

How does your queerness intersect with your creativity?
I’m a huge advocate for equality. I think a lot of that comes from being gay and having times in my life where because of who I am, I was treated differently and on the receiving end of emotional, mental and even on occasion physical abuse. It makes you fight for something. I suppose I fight through my work.

I think that happened a lot when I was writing Torn Apart, definitely from a feminist standpoint but also, by having straight and gay couples in the play. It’s reminding the audience that all relationships are equal that these couples share similar experiences despite the fact they are different genders and orientations.

How important is it to you to explore queer themes in your work?
It’s just as important as non-queer themes. But I think it’s hugely important because it starts a conversation and by that conversation being started it’s really an education through art. That way, hopefully, there is more awareness for the LGBT community and the people involved in it and therefore less discrimination and hate. It is just showing real life and a part of life that is not accessed often enough.

Tell us about the genesis of Torn Apart.
Torn Apart is based on true and fictional events. I started writing it over 2 years ago and the first character I wrote is based on Nastazja’s (the co-director of No Offence theatre company) mother and her experience with an American soldier in Germany in the 80s. Because I developed the piece over a long period of time there is a lot of my own experience in there too, a lot of heartbreak I was going through at the time.

Ultimately it is a love story. I’m a romantic and I suppose the actor in me is fascinated by people, so love and relationships were something I wanted to explore. Love is powerful, animalistic and important. The play is about love and sex and drugs… But more the drug of love or a person and the breakdown of that.

In The Rules Of Inflation, you explore – as you describe – ‘drag culture, female and male objectification, gender stereotypes, sex and politics’. Can you tell us a bit more about your work with Balloons Theatre.
I love working with Balloons Theatre; mostly because of the sheer unapologetic nature we all have when creating. The way we work there is no set director, no script, no constraints or judgment, just what we bring to the room. A lot of what we explore is very personal to us even to the extent of trauma or discrimination we have been exposed too. We, in a very playful and colourful way through celebrations and playing games, explore the way we look at people in sexual contexts. The character I play in The Rules Of Inflation (Pink) looks at drag culture as a freedom of expression and fantasy, a happy perfect place.

The show is up for an Eddie award which could offer us a run at the Drayton Arms, which would be fucking awesome, but even if we don’t win you will see The Rules Of Inflation on again at some point in the not too distant future. We are in talks for a few festivals in the next year.

This is a vital and exciting time for LGBTQUIA art and performance across the board. What work is really rocking your world right now?
There is so much going on with LGBT in theatre at the moment, which I love because I believe theatre should be more diverse and I feel that the LGBT community can help that in a very positive way. Gender was a common thread in a lot of the work I saw up at the Ed Fringe. I love Lucy McCormack’s work, she’s a theatrical performance artist, just go and see her if you ever get the chance. I love the way she challenges religion and the stereotypical idea of a woman or man. Joan at Ed fringe was a great drag king piece too. I’m friends with the creator and the cast of 5 Guys Chillin. It’s a verbatim theatre piece, hugely topical. I’ve seen it 5 times. I’m also loving Frank Oceans new work and sound. That video for Nikes is absolutely gorgeous.

Torn Apart (Dissolution) is on at the Theatre N16, Balham, London until 30^th September.