‘Trans women can indeed play female roles’: Jinkx Monsoon on Oh, Mary!, sobriety and transitioning

Monsoon plays Mary Todd Lincoln in Cole Escola’s comedy at the Trafalgar Theatre until 26 September, her third stint in the role after two runs on Broadway.

“If it’s rooted in something true, the writing can be wild,” Monsoon said. “And the performer can be wild, but we buy it because it’s all rooted in something real.”

That, she argued, is the one thing the technology currently being sold to the creative industries can’t fake. “AI can’t have lived for a decade as an alcoholic. AI doesn’t have shame and guilt and ego and all of those things that we have to conquer to even start to realise our best self.”