Rotterdam is a play written by Jon Brittain and directed by Donnacadh O'Brien.

It’s Rotterdam on New Year’s Eve and English expat Alice (Alice McCarthy) is at last about to tell her parents that she’s gay qnd in a longterm relationship with Fiona (Anna Martine Freeman).
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It looks all set to be a new year and new start for the couple, except that Fiona also has something that needs to come out as well. She's transgender and wishes to start living as Adrian.

Brittain handles complex issues with great honesty and thoughtfulness, but also with a refreshing amount of wit. A large part of the last quality comes from Jessica Clark as Alice’s amusingly plain-speaking Dutch colleague Lelani, a counterpoint to Ed Eales-White as Fiona’s understanding and unflummoxable brother Josh.

There’s much admirable, agonised work from Martine as Fiona/Adrian, but even better is McCarthy, who reveals with quiet poignancy the heart of the confusion that Alice dares not admit to her partner.

If Fiona is a man, does that mean Alice is now straight? Do such labels help or hinder? A compelling evening’s theatre.

Alice's monologue:

On a night when Harry Potter and the Cursed Child set a record by winning nine Olivier Awards, Rotterdam became the first transgender-themed play to take home an Olivier...for outstanding achievement in an affiliate theatre.

It's really exciting that trans-narratives are being brought into the mainstream. As far as we have been made aware, it is the first transgender-themed play to be nominated at an Olivier Awards.

It's come from what feels like humble beginnings and is really flying.

With everything going on, I'd love for Rotterdam to have a larger effect on inclusion and understanding around the world.

--Anna Martine Freeman

Rotterdam will make its American appearance with a run from May 17 to June 10 at 59E59 Theaters in Manhattan.

The play is available as an ebook.