Time Out's gui to the bt LGBTQ+ theatre shows across London. Coverg everythg om lbian drama to queer baret to gay theatre classics, here's where to fd the latt LGBTQ+ shows across the cy.
Contents:
- 1964: THE BIRTH OF GAY THEATER
- WHAT’S WH GAY MEN AND MIL THEATER?
- THE FOTTEN SECRET LANGUAGE OF GAY MEN
- GAY THEATRE: G OUT OR GOG BACK?
- A BRIEF HISTORY OF GAY THEATER, THREE ACTS
- THE 10 BT GAY MILS OF ALL TIME
1964: THE BIRTH OF GAY THEATER
Heavily ed by Brish gays the 1920s bee of anti-homosexual laws, efforts are beg ma to prerve an entirely queer-based slang. * gay theatre language *
The "secret language" was ed heavily by gays the circ, navy, and theater, and arose out of the need to discs gay matters unr a clever guise, due to homosexual acts beg illegal Bra until the passage of the Sexual Offens Act 1967.
WHAT’S WH GAY MEN AND MIL THEATER?
IF “GAY THEATER” is fed as beg by, for, and about uncloseted gay people, then 2014 arguably marks the 50th anniversary of the genre’s existence. * gay theatre language *
Here's some of the amg slang: Basket - the bulge of male genals through clothFantabulos-wonrfulEf - face (backslang) DollyEf - pretty face Chicken - a young guySome Polari words still exist morn gay slang. Check out Atlas Obscura pots out, Polari was a great self-performative outlet for Brish gays to not only exprs themselv but also easily intify and n wh fellow memebers of the queer muny. In 1964, spe a social climate of homophobia that pervad Amerin life for the send third of the 20th century, two one-act plays prented Off-Off-Broadway at the Caffe Co revolutnized how gay characters uld be reprented theatrilly.
THE FOTTEN SECRET LANGUAGE OF GAY MEN
In the first half of the 20th century, you uld be arrted for stagg a gay play. Theatr uld be packed and shows sold out, but that wouldn’t stop them om beg shut down for "obscene" ntent. * gay theatre language *
Satirized the trial of Osr Wil sympathetilly), the Wilson and Patrick one-acts were unique that both featured gay characters set the prent time who were not only open, but boisteroly fiant. We uldn’t jt log on to the ter or turn on the televisn to fd reprentatns of ourselv, we had to triangulate and hypothize om half-hts and sual pretory remarks by New York wrers about Greenwich Village parti and ffeeho that wh an only half-discerned arty Bohemian environment there might possibly be a ltle more acceptance of homosexuals.
GAY THEATRE: G OUT OR GOG BACK?
<p>Gay wrg is at a crossroads, says <strong>Thomas Htt</strong> – we've yet to produce a voice to match those who me before</p> * gay theatre language *
In tanm wh the work of activist polil groups, which had begun anizg the late 1950s, the wrers at the Caffe Co—wh their wild talents for turng fantasy to theatril realy for their untercultural dienc—metaphorilly gave birth to the ncept of “gay liberatn. (In fact, Doric Wilson, perhaps the first playwright of the “Gay Theater” movement at the Co, was also a pneer of gay polil activism: he participated both the GLF and s scennt, the GAA.
LANFORD WILSON and Robert Patrick were not unaware that their impulse to wre plays about openly gay characters was chartg new terrory, as wns Wilson’s “thor not” to “The Madns of Lady Bright”: “I believe the ia of the play shocked me.
A BRIEF HISTORY OF GAY THEATER, THREE ACTS
* gay theatre language *
Openg on December 6, 1964, only a few months after “The Madns of Lady Bright, ” “The Hnted Host” has as s protagonist one Jay, a wildly funny gay playwright who has recently lost his lover Ed to suici.
Envisng an alternative endg for the tragic queen archetype, the play enacts a crique of homosexual inti by offerg a visn which the stereotypil power dynamic between the gay man and the straight man is verted. By reversg the prumptn of heterosexualy as origal tth, and puttg the “straight man” a posn which he mt expla his “foreign” sexualy to a gay man, the playwright language to unrme the heterosexist perceptn of realy.
THE 10 BT GAY MILS OF ALL TIME
Flickr photos, groups, and tags related to the "gaytheatre" Flickr tag." data-dynamic="te * gay theatre language *
Patrick’s queer theater ntributed to a nascent sense of “gay liberatn” by promotg visibily, stabilizg normative social nstcts, providg a template for dividual self-empowerment, and exposg opprsn. An ephemeral utopia for Patrick and his iends, the Co was neverthels a place where numero relatnships were built, and where gay artists uld fd the mararie that affirmed their mon terts, perspectiv, and sexual sir. He loved opera too, which is another mon stereotype about gay men that ntas a good b of hnted Broadway together, we subscribed to opera seri, and we regularly spread a blanket out Central Park to sip Chardonnay and thrill to why?
<p><strong>Michael Billgton: </strong>The gay and lbian theatre movement has changed radilly sce the opprsive days of the 1950s, but uld more wrers rise to the challenge of ntemporary issu?</p> * gay theatre language *
Most of the theater people of his day didn't know how their culture had evolved jt knew that many of them were gay and even transgenr, not that transgenr was a word Lenny knew is that men who liked other men liked the theater. I don't have anythg agast show tun, I jt don't many gay men of my generatn and younger, tradnal gay culture is not somethg I actively we tegrate and normalize, our special cultur are fadg 're the last lks to the old rogu of the travellg theater , those ancient tradns will live on only history books.
Gay people may fd solace and fort theatre, but there are other groups who do not, and we should make every effort to change MasculyThe other reason why theatre is sometim labeled as queer, most often by men, is that there are aspects of stagecraft that n ntrary to entrenched ias of masculy.