Alice d'Lumiere is just another commuter on the train through life; sensible shoes, a practical dress, and a mask, if guidelines require it. But a free-standing hoop, a flash of electric blue satin and voluminous petticoats floating in the wings like luminous jellyfish suggest this poetry-performance-exploration of life’s simple turns may have a more flamboyant, expressive mode waiting in the wings.

As the stiff expression of professional, respectable femininity starts to slide into the performer’s exuberant world of red lipstick and tights, words take on a wilder, looser tone. As the little black dress gives way to hoop-friendly tights, the poetry switches up, becomes more (gender) fluid and the show finds its wings. Deliciously brusque speech forays into broad humour and bawdy burlesque punctuate the physical world of shimmies and spins.

Composer Tina Gooding and Choreographer Angelica Bangs round out the sound and provide suitable support at key moments. Here and there, a moment on a stage or a train brings out the voice of Darren Gooding, who rounds up this one-person show into a satisfyingly complete gender identity exploration. At once a celebration of uniqueness and fitting in, of passing and standing out and proud, this show celebrates a world of intersecting identities and individuals that hold each other kindly, with care and compassion. From committee meetings to Christmas trees, crowded commutes to triumphs of costume construction, there is a lot of subject matter to be addressed, and lots of dressing for the occasion.

Playful, kind, occasionally bawdy, but always considerate, Speaking out and fitting In! is a one-person show that fluidly moves through gender and identity, exploring (and occasionally exploding) preconceptions. Refusing to be put in a box, yet speaking outspokenly from an exquisitely expensive museum cabinet, Alice de Lumiere wears their contradictions and complexity with verve and style.