Boy Island

Fox (Prokaryote Season) unspools an imaginative and insightful tale of gender transition. Lucille undertakes the fraught journey across the sea from Girl Island to Boy Island, hoping at last to become his authentic self. The backstory to Lucille’s plight revolves around the rivalry between two powerful arch enemies: Jounce, who serves as the main narrator and describes himself as the “spirit of perversion”; and Fairy, who created the islands to maintain control over strict binaries. Those who are neither male nor female, Jounce explains, are “faced with a choice; either pick a side or flee into the vast ocean.... the bravest among them chose the ocean.” Others in the fantastical cast include Starman, Fairy’s son, who transports people between the islands for “the price of one memory,” and Batleigh, Starman’s estranged sister who is searching for her missing husband on Boy Island. At the close of their adventures, Starman tells Lucille, “We can’t uninvent gender. But we can try and make it work, right?” Fox’s dreamlike landscapes and phantasmagorical character design give the proceedings surreal visual flair. This winning fable is drawn with wild style and genuine heart. (Aug.)