IPHIS IS A MAN - Persistence Theatre

IPHIS IS A MAN - written and directed by Cheney Emberg

Playing November 26-28, 2026 at the Barbara Barrett Theatre, St. John's, NL

Iphis's experience growing up is no different than any other boy living in Crete... until, to his great chagrin, he starts his period.

After assuming he is dying and promptly passing out, Iphis begins to unravel the truth of his gender identity. His life seems to crumble before his eyes as he realizes that the question of "what makes a man" is a lot more complicated than he initially thought.

He can't trust his religious fanatic mother, Telethusa, his best friend and nurse, Dimitra, or his clueless father, Ligdus, to tell the truth of who he is; he must figure that out on his own.

To throw a wrench in it all, there's a girl who is following him everywhere and refuses to stop… not that he'd want the chase to end.

Narrated by a drag-queen-goddess and inspired by the ancient Greek myth of Iphis as recorded by Ovid in Metamorphoses, IPHIS IS A MAN is the coming-of-age story of a boy trying to navigate what it means to be a man in a 374 BC Greece that looks and sounds a lot like our 21st-century western world.

This production has been supported by: