So Torr decamped to New York and by the early Eighties shared a flat with the film-maker Hans "Cyberdyke" Schierl. The two of them spent their time between jobs giving impromptu performances as mermaids Mermaids?"I can't remember why," she laughs "Hans made the costumes so that's what we did That's the kind of thing you do in New York. I love the place but it's like a city of A-grade students, climbing on each other's back trying to be the best student. I mean, people do help each other out but it's totally tit for tat. People never forget you owe them."Watching a Diane Torr performance is an uncomfortable experience. Her stance on stage is powerful and uncompromising, which is difficult to square with the fact that she is only about 5ft 3in tall.In her most recent show, Torr uses physical theatre and slide shows to illustrate the history of women who have cross-dressed as men Her concept is simple.

Torr believes that the words "masculine" and "feminine" are the result of taught behaviour.Torr opens the show with her first character,"Sylvia", a nervous, simpering housewife, dressed in a simple afternoon dress. Then, while the women in the audience are shifting uncomfortably in their seats, she moves on to look at the reality beneath the behaviour. With barely a flicker of false eyelashes, Torr unwraps the elegant housewife as a woman who, resigned to celibacy after years of marriage, sells sex toys while her husband thinks she sits quietly at home.Torr has become involved recently in transgender rights. This is where people who have had surgery to help them resemble the sex they feel they really are, are demanding basic civil rights.