Customer Reviews

Not in Front of the Audience: Homosexuality on Stage

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Written as a study of homosexuality in the theatre, de Jongh pieces together what he feels are the pivotal gay plays of London and New York from 1925 to 1985. The survey is a pointed one as de Jongh himself admits he focuses on plays where "homosexual desire precipitates a crisis". The book moves more and more from an examination of the plays within their social and historical context to a first hand account of gay theatre history from an inside perspective. The author has been a theatre critic since 1970 and even apologizes for the shortcomings of an early review pleading "delayed innocence" - a beautiful moment for any kind of artist and a humanizing one for the critics.

At times a bit academic, the book may become a difficult read for those without a vested interest in the subject matter. For those with a vested interest, the chapters are enjoyable despite the jabs the American theatre takes in the last two chapters. De Jongh easily journeys from "the deviant, the damned and the dandified" through the birth of a positive gay identity and ultimately to "the return of the outcast" during the early years of the AIDS epidemic. Difficult or not, it is a book that should be read by anyone involved in the theatre and especially those who claim a gay identity there. Don't look for lesbians though, they are unfortunately absent.

Other titles of interest: Carl Miller's Stages of Desire and Vito Russo's The Celluloid Closet