HowlRound Theatre Commons: I hear it from my students, my audiences, my colleagues, and my friends: give us queer joy! Give us queer narratives that transcend the typical tragedies of historical queer dramas! Give us queer plays without suicide, without AIDS-related death, without concentration camps, without bashing, without familial rejection. Give us unadulterated joy!
3 comments:
This is such a hard line to walk. If what theatre is striving for is catharsis, then it should be as true to life and real people’s struggles as possible, but that can be very exhausting for audiences, especially when that is all that is available to them. A tired theatergoer might argue that theater is actually about escape, but an overreliance on frivolity that skates over real issues is passing up important opportunities to make change. There is no neat answer or ratio to this question; they are just different types of theatre, with different purposes, and since anyone can make theatre, we have to trust in the balance of the universe that both will find their audiences. I love the spirit of this revisiting sort of underground queer plays to get to explore and really show how queer people have always been here, and have always had nuanced and enriching experiences and stories to tell.
I can see both sides of this argument. I am one of those people who wants to see more queer joy represented in media. But I do agree that it’s important to show the struggles of being queer as well. I think each has its own place within media. A play that is able to show both queer joy and queer pain is great. But I think it’s ok to also have a play that focuses on just queer joy. One play doesn't need to include absolutely everything about being queer, especially because everyone's experience is different. It's important to recognize that depicting only queer trauma is scary. If this is how life is in every story, then maybe it’s not worth coming out. On the other hand, as mentioned in the article, there is some queer joy in a community of people who have been through the same hardships as you.
I've talked about this before but I’d also like to see plays where a character is queer just because it's a normal thing. It should affect their character and their morals, but it shouldn't be their only thing.
This is such a thought provoking article because often, in my experience, queerness is most commonly used as a stereotype or as a prop for heteronormative society. Actual plays for queer people are often hidden and still not celebrated enough because of the heavy topics they deal with. The queer experience is without a doubt littered with trauma and heavy topics and it is such a hard line to walk when presenting the queer experience because with the joy and catharsis also comes with the isolation and shaming and people are not ready to listen to that and hear that. I think theatre does not have to be realistic in the sense that everything is play. There can be stories about queerness that are pure joy and maybe that isn’t realistic but it provides an alternate reality to where that can be but that also has to come with the recognition that maybe it’s not the most accurate. There is a space for all kinds of experiences in theatre.
Post a Comment