Tomboy Survival Guide (Ivan Coyote)

The Tomboy Survival Guide is designed for everyone who's thought about gender, been told they're not conforming or that nobody will ever love someone like them. Author and spoken-word performer Ivan Coyote brings their all-tomboy band from Canada to share their personal stories with a groovy background of trumpet, bass and drums. With rapid-fire articulation, they conjure up past crushes and other moments with a clarity that is sometimes funny, occasionally bittersweet, and always entrancing.

The audience is carried helplessly along on Ivan's aching ride through a world that kills with calculated indifference, a world which places the responsibility for acceptance on people just trying to piece themselves together. Tomboy's Survival Guide is presented on the stage of the Magic Mirror tent at the Meriton Festival Village - an ideal space for self-reflection - and features a variety of wonderful little performance moments by Ivan and the band, including a barbershop quartet and some body percussion.

This is not a show only for tomboys, despite the title - Ivan's intensely relatable stories will resonate with anyone who's ever felt the pressure to place their gender or personality in a box and conform to what's expected of them. It's a tale designed to remind people that they are not alone.

Sydney Festival presents Tomboy Survival Guide, to Jan 29 at the Magic Mirrors Spiegeltent, Meriton Festival Village.