Her pregnant brother: Johanna Nutter talks about her family and Zoofest play

A family affair: Johanna Nutter photo by Susan Moss

In the creation of her play My Pregnant Brother, Johanna Nutter cried out that she was “cannibalizing” her family for an audience, but three years later she seems more at peace with the delicate territory of the memoirist.

“I really did struggle with those fears, those fears of exploitation,” Nutter admits in a quiet café in downtown Montreal. “I had to ask myself over and over again “Why are you telling this story? [But] it wouldn’t let me go. It wouldn’t let me sleep.”

In 2006, Nutter was trying to separate herself from the caretaking role in her family, when she received a phone call from her brother. In the midst of his female-to-male transition he found himself pregnant and called upon his older sister, as he had so many times before. The call left Nutter lying prone on her kitchen floor for 26 hours.

“It was linoleum,” her artist statement says. “But to me it was the proverbial rock bottom.”

After struggling with the idea for years, Nutter dove in to her family drama. Working with director/dramaturge Jeremy Taylor, she brought the play to Montreal’s 2009 Fringe Festival. It subsequently won the Best of Fest and a MECCA for Best Text, a testament to its appeal beyond transgender issues. The heart of the story runs much deeper than its immediate subject matter.

“I find people shy away from the play because of the title,” Nutter says. “It’s unfortunate because the play isn’t really about transgender issues. You don’t have to take a politically correct pill to come see the play.”

“The story is very much about these four little girls who are myself, my niece, my mother and my brother, who was at one time my little sister. It’s about women and identity and who we start out as as little girls and how we don’t really change that much. We put on these clothes, if you want to call them, these identities, that are a function of our experiences.”

“It’s all very psycho-babbly, I’m afraid,” Nutter laughs. “But it’s really quite simple. I think that these are the stories that interest me, are the stories that are very archetypical, where we can explore one person very specifically and in doing so elaborate on a much wider archetype that touches, in this case I think, most women.”

Since its 2009 launch, My Pregnant Brother has received wide acclaim, touring across the country and, recently, being translated into French. In 2011, in Vancouver, Nutter finally lifted the embargo she had placed on her family and invited them to a performance.

“They had a very difficult time accepting my perception of things,” Nutter admits. “And they still do, but they allow it and they support it. They won’t ever take it on as their own. They have their own perceptions, but every run that I put on of the play, they send me a little ‘good luck!’ So they’re accepting on a certain level.”

As for the future, it’s looking rosy. Nutter recently translated My Pregnant Brother into French, with the expectation of touring the show across Quebec.

“I don’t see it coming back to Montreal anytime that soon,” she laughs. “For the main reason that I think my friends are tired of my pestering them to come to see it (laughs). Most of them are on their second round and I’ve got to give them a break.”■

My Pregnant Brother runs in French on July 25, and in English July 26 and 27 at La Chapelle as part of Zoofest. Johanna Nutter can also be seen this fall as Margie Walsh in the Centaur Theatre’s production of Good People.