IPAF presents: First Trimester by Krishna Istha

This groundbreaking performance offers a rare opportunity to contribute to and witness queer family-making.

Embark on a journey with London-based performance artist Krishna Istha as they search for the ‘perfect’ sperm donor. First Trimester explores human connection and parenthood, challenging expectations and redefining what it means to create a family as a transgender person.

In the Danish premiere of this one-of-a-kind durational experience, fresh from its world premiere in London & Auckland, First Trimester invites you to witness intimate live interviews between Krishna and 100s of participants, in a quest to find them and their partner a sperm donor, or at least discover the qualities that bring them closer to their perfect match.

Krishna asks questions that range from funny to serious, from matter-of-fact information to philosophical perspectives in order to make the ultimate connection.

“Did you grow up with pets?”
“Where do you store your memories?”
“What do you value more, kindness or intelligence?”
And, most importantly for Krishna, “Have you watched The Princess Diaries?”

Audience members are invited to watch as the interviews unfold, but are also welcome to sign-up as a participant as a prospective donor. We welcome participants aged 18 to 60+ from all backgrounds. Each interview is pivotal in helping Krishna get closer to finding the right donor. If you would like to sign up to participate, please visit our website: https://firsttrimester.co.uk/

This is a durational performance. Saturday’s performance runs for 7 hours, and you can either buy a ticket for the full 7 hours (plus a 1 hour break) or for 3 hour slots. Sunday’s performance runs for 3 hours and you can buy a ticket for the duration. All shows are sensory adapted and are relaxed — i.e you are welcome to come and go from the space as you please with the slot you have selected.

Commissioned by Roundhouse, Battersea Arts Centre and Marlborough Productions.
Supported by Arts Council England.
Presented by Warehouse9 as part of IPAF 2024 

Language: English

Tickets: Tickets are pay-what-you-can. On the 16th March you can either book a 3 hours time slot or a ticket for the whole day.

Access: Dansekapellet is wheelchair accessible. Accessible toilets are located on site. This is a relaxed performance.

Content warnings: The participants taking part in the live conversations have not rehearsed before coming on stage and do not know what the questions are before taking part. We therefore can not know exactly what will be said in advance. 

Audiences are welcome to come and go from the space as you please with the slot they have selected.

Other content notes: 

• There will be moments of loud music and sounds.
• All performances will be Relaxed. We invite you to make yourself comfortable and move around if you need to and if you need to leave the performance at any point you will be allowed to return to the space when you feel ready.
• Participant & audience care has been central to the development of the show and there will be a wellbeing practitioner on site at every performance.
• Please note, due to the format of the show, there may be a small wait of no more than 10 minutes to enter the space if you arrive after the start time.

Working group & credits
Lead Artist: Krishna Istha
Producer: Ruby Glaskin
Dramaturg: Paula Varjack
Coder & website designer: Suzanna Hurst
Set & Costume Designer: Christine Ting – Huan Urquhart
Lighting Designer: Martha Godfrey
Sound Designer: Olive Mondegreen
Production Manager: Helen Mugridge

About the artists:
Krishna Istha is a London-based performance artist, comedian, theatre maker and screenwriter. They create socially conscious, form-pushing works about taboo or underrepresented experiences of gender, race and sexual politics. Most recently, they wrote on Netflix’s Sex Education (Season 4, Episode 3) and is a Netflix Documentary Talent Fund recipient. They were a Barbican Centre Open Lab artist (2021-22) and an Arts Admin Bursary Artist (2020-21). They were one of two shortlisted writers for the SKY Arts & Royal Society of Literature Writers Awards under screenwriting (2022), and came Runner-Up on Screenshot (2021) — a competition for comedy writer-performers hosted by Sister Pictures and South of the River Pictures.
https://www.krishnaistha.com/

First Trimester is part of IPAF: an international festival for contemporary performance presenting artists from different cultural contexts, whose work engages identity politics, sexual expressions, and body representations, facilitated by Warehouse9.

The festival is supported by the Danish Arts Foundation, the City of Copenhagen and Bispebjerg Lokaludvalg.