A controversial play which portrays Jesus as a transsexual woman was defended yesterday by its writer who has herself crossed the gender barrier to live as a woman.

Jesus, Queen of Heaven, has caused a storm of protest from Christian evangelical groups, who picketed the Tron Theatre in Glasgow when it opened this week.

However, their attacks have caused deep offence to the play’s author, who also acts the leading role. For Jo Clifford — formerly the playwright John Clifford — wrote the piece in an attempt to create greater understanding of transgendered people like herself.

The play’s opening night was attended by about 300 demonstrators. Roman Catholics joined evangelical Christians for a two-hour protest during which they waved placards and sang hymns.

Yesterday Ms Clifford, 59, from Edinburgh, expressed deep disappointment in the reaction.

“Most of it is happening because of a complete misunderstanding of what I am and what I am trying to do ... They thought awful, sacrilegious things were going to happen on stage,” she said. Her critics, she added, ought to reread the Gospel. “Jesus said: ‘judge not’.”

Ms Clifford is clear that much of the motivation for protestors is disapproval of her transgendered identity. Not only has she written the play, she also performs the title and only role.

“One of the placards turned up later in the bar. It said, ‘God: My Son Is Not A Pervert’. That was upsetting because what’s behind it is prejudice against transgendered people.”

The piece is a sequel to God’s New Frock, which Ms Clifford wrote in 2002 when she was still identified as John. Although she came out to her friends and family at the age of 50, she did not begin living as a woman until five years ago, after her partner, Sue Innes, the feminist writer, with whom she has two children, died.

While God’s New Frock was a partly autobiographical piece about Ms Clifford growing up as a male and trying to suppress her need to become a woman, Jesus, Queen of Heaven, imagines the son of God alive in the present world as a transsexual woman, and attempts to present how she would relate the parables under this transgendered identity. “I have showed the script to priests and they’ve said it corresponds to what the Bible says,” Ms Clifford added.

The negative response by some church groups to the play is one of the strongest seen since Jerry Springer: The Opera, a West End musical written by Stewart Lee and Richard Thomas, was screened by the BBC in 2005. Yet Ms Clifford says she did not think she was being especially controversial when she wrote the piece. “I thought the story was a very respectful one, and a very loving one.”

Those who have seen the play, she said, have found it uplifting — “even a man from the Daily Mail”.

The production, part of the Glasgay! festival, may tour. “A couple of churches in London have expressed interest, funny enough,” she said.

Her greatest hope is that theatregoers will gain a clearer understanding of what it means to be transgendered. “There is a lot of prejudice to overcome, but you don’t overcome fear by hiding away,” she said.

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