A couple conducting an international search for the right sperm donor to start a family are coming to Dublin.
Transgender performance artist Krishna Istha is interviewing hundreds of potential sperm donors live on stage in a quest to find the ultimate connection that will enable them and their partner Logan Rea to start a family.
Due to a lack of resources for trans people wanting to biologically conceive, Krishna has created a durational theatre show.
So far they have interviewed 198 perspective sperm donors across London, New Zealand and Copenhagen.
Krishna, a London-based performance artist, told Lunchtime Live they wanted to go beyond the traditional search.
"Me and my partner, we're both trans, and were looking to start a family about four years ago," they said.
"We were looking on sperm donor websites and realised that all of the information we were getting about these potential donors were things like eye colour, height and whether or not people had PhDs.
"These were things we didn't really care about.
"Almost in passing, as a joke, I said, 'Wouldn't it be amazing if we could speak to all these people and make a more genuine connection with them and find out who they are and what they're really like?'"
A poster for Krishna Istha's show 'First Trimester'. Image: SuppliedKrishna said they came up with the idea from what they already know.
"I just came up with this idea using the resources I have - which is a stage, a platform, sitting on it and interviewing lots of different people," they said.
"It's been such an amazing experience, meeting all these different people [who are] arriving there for lots of different reasons.
"The shows are between three to nine hours and audiences can come and go - you don't have to stay there for nine hours but I'll be there for nine hours".
'No right or wrong answer'
Krishna said they believe they will interview around 60 people across three days.
"I think the questions are not what people expect - they range from 'how do you sleep?' or 'are you a bad boy?', 'what's your favourite way to move your body?'" they said.
"[There are] deeper questions like, 'If you were to be our sperm donor, how would you respond to X, Y and Z?'
"They've sort of been crafted to not really have a right or wrong answer and for us to really understand the person that we're speaking to".
The show 'First Trimester' is being staged from September 19th to 21st as part of the Dublin Fringe Festival with an 'All Day Durational Performance' on the final day.
