Download File - Morbid Messages of the Queer

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Shareef Elkady
Dr. Vorder Bruegge
THRT 386
March 27th, 2014
Morbid Messages of the Queer
Homosexuals needed an area to express the oppression they faced and rebel
against society’s moral construct. Media became the catalyst for that expression.
Thus in western culture, theatre with strong gay themes and characters were born.
In order to stress the vitality of gay rights, queer media needed a vehicle to
pressure the importance of their plight for equality. As homosexual men faced
specific oppression caused by societal gender roles, they found a way to
communicate their struggles through theatre. Using a vehicle that displayed and
analyzed the dangers homosexual men faced and why those experiences were toxic
to society. Death is commonly used as a plot device to drive the statements being
made by works of Queer theatre, particularly those which focus on gay male
relationships.
In understanding death as it is used as a vehicle in queer theatre, death needs
to be understood as a theatrical device. In order to look at death as a theatrical
device we have to observe theatrical deaths origins. In Eroticism and Death in
Theatre and Performance Karoline Gritzner, a lecturer in drama and theatre studies
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at Aberystwyth University, takes a detail look at death through Theatre. She
observes theatre’s roots in Greek mythology and applies that as the ground plan for
theatre in general. “Mythology tells us that love, sexual desire and death co-exist as
conflicting yet complementary forces in the human psyche. Theatre and theory,
from the ancient world to the present day, have explored the embodiments and
conceptual constellations of sexuality, desire and death in a multitude of ways.”
(Gritzner, 2). Karoline Gritzner is first establishing love and death as significant to
the human condition. As witnessed in Greek mythology which is the foundation for
early theatre. Then she is driving decisions humans make based on love and death,
as important forces in our lives. Then applying this to theatre she states we have
used theatrical performance as a platform to express the correlation of love and
death in a variety of ways. Taking an in depth look at how death is then related to
sensuality, Gritzner observes one of the most well-known psychologist Sigmund
Freud. She uses him to explain the correlation between sex and death.
“But such a theory (the pleasure principle which controls our unconscious
‘the id’ and aims for immediate want fulfilment) could not explain the
origins of the destructive tendencies of the mind, such as the repetition of
painful, traumatic experiences, which is not in the interest of the ego or the
libidinal id. This led Freud to the discovery of the death drive. Eros is selfpreserving and life-creating desire, and is often used as an umbrella term for
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sexual instincts (which create an energy known as libido). The sexual
instincts are counterbalanced by the death drive, whose aim is destruction: to
‘lead organic life back into the inanimate state.” (Gritzner, 2).
In this quote Gritzner is stating Sigmund Freud’s theory of counter balance. The
goal of the death drive is a desire for destruction. Because human beings have a
need to reproduce to survive, Eros is connected to sex. Sex is survival. Because we
are born with a sex drive that establishes life and a death drive that craves
destruction, they balance each other and are consequently coupled. Therefore are
connected within theatre and can illustrate how sexual desire towards someone of
the same sex has an immediate bond to death.
Gritzner later goes on to state how these theatrical values established
Western tradition in theatre. Pulling from William Shakespeare who is considered
to be one of the greatest playwrights we can see the usage of death over two main
genres. By comparing the differences between death in comedy and death in
tragedy it can be observed why most queer plays can be classified as tragedies.
Comedy perceived death as part of the natural order. In tragedy death is the
outcome of the natural order or moral sexual codes being twisted and perverted. By
looking at how Shakespeare tragedy’s structured death, they can easily be
compared to queer theatre. In queer theatre, death is the result of society’s moral
structure (sexual codes) being defied and bent. Western society was built on
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heteronormativity and homosexual relations were viewed as breaking societal
rules. In early American queer theatre AIDS was a marker of a homosexuality in a
time where staying in the closet was the difference between life and death. This
shows why death is so rooted in tragedy. And by correlating sex and death
according to Freudian values, homosexuality has an innate connection to death.
Classifying much of queer theatre as tragedies.
This is a list of queer plays that contain the death of a gay male character.
•
Angels in America by Tony Kushner
•
As Is by William M. Hoffman
•
Bent by Martin Sherman
•
Corpus Christi by Terrence McNally
•
Dog Sees God by Bert V. Royal
•
In the Heart of America by Naomie Wallace
•
Jeffery by Paul Rudnick
•
Love! Valour! Compassion! by Terrence McNally
•
March of the Falsettos Trilogy by William Finn
•
Next Fall by Geoffrey Nauffts
•
Rent by Jonathan Larson
•
Take me out by Richard Greenberg
•
The Laramie Project by Moisés Kaufman
•
The Normal Heart by Larry Kramer
•
Torch Song Trilogy by Harvey Fierstein
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Through the chronological journey of western queer theatre we start with the
AIDS crisis. This epidemic caused a primal need for awareness within the gay
community. And the gay community spoke up. Releasing such works as The
Normal Heart and Angels in America that made a desperate cry for the struggles
homosexual men faced. Attempting to reach out to the general population to make
aware the oppression and repression homosexual men went through. Death
connected to a sexual desire. The homosexual community had a message to
communicate. That love is powerful and deserves equality. Any love, not just
society’s comfortable ideal of what love should be. AIDS brought about a call for
social change and awareness. “We’re here and we’re queer”. And this paved the
way for gay culture to evolve. And along with it, gay theatre.
What makes the next three plays an important showcase in the history of
death in queer theatre is that these plays are relatively recent. The majority of plays
that use queer death as a plot device do so through AIDS. As AIDS is still a
national cause of death, queer theatre has done its part to make that aware. By
doing so the importance of spreading the aids message has been accomplished.
According to the CDC, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “The overall
number of new HIV cases – referred to as HIV incidence – has remained relatively
stable at approximately 50,000 new cases annually.” Showing that even though
HIV cases have not decreased they have not increased either. AIDS has become
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embedded into gay culture, modern gay men are raised with the dangers of AIDS.
Therefore AIDS awareness has allowed safe sex to become a staple in what gay
men are taught. The Laramie Project, Dog Sees God and Next Fall represents how
this topic is now being transformed in homosexual theatre. AIDS has been married
to queer theatre and is part of queer theatre’s foundation. What these three plays
embody is that queer theatre is starting to move past the AIDS era. As
homosexuality is evolving so are the topics. For example in Next Fall Geoffrey
Nauffts focuses on the love of a Christian man and an Atheist man. And while one
of these men die at the end of the play, AIDS is not the culprit. Showing that AIDS
is no longer dictating how homosexuals live but instead is grounded in the
foundation of homosexual culture. However as death is still a key component in
these three plays, deaths remains as an importance to queer theatre despite AIDS.
The Laramie Project, Dog Sees God and Next Fall continue the correlation of
death used a plot device in queer theatre and display how deaths usage has
changed.
“The Normal Heart is no less than a scathing indictment of American
society’s failure to respond to AIDS…” (Fisher, 18). According to James Fisher
the editor and one of the writers of “We will be Citizens” A collection of essays on
Gay and Lesbian Theatre. In his opening sentence on his analysis of The Normal
Heart, Fisher sums up the play into a singular sentence. Stating that Larry
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Kramer’s play was a major punch in the face in its heyday. Not afraid to shy away
from politeness. The Normal Heart shares the story of when AIDS was known as
‘Gay Cancer’. Society at the time had no idea how to cure it or prevent it. And
because the disease effected a certain minority that was considered less than
favorable by the majority of the population, not much was being done to stop the
AIDS epidemic. The Normal Heart was Fisher’s way of bringing awareness to the
disease. What separates The Normal Heart from other AIDS plays at its time was
that it focused on the personal lives of the characters affected by AIDS. The
Normal Heart conveyed the message that society had failed in response to the
AIDS crisis. This play was utilized as a punch to the gut, to make society
understand the severity of the virus and their lack of understanding of the
devastation it caused. Using the epidemic of AIDS, The Normal Heart uses death
in its purist form; death as the loss of life. During the AIDS crisis because it was
homosexuals dying, AIDS was seen as punishment. What The Normal Heart does
is show that AIDS was death. Even if it was felt that the gay population deserved
to be punished, showing the severity of AIDS displayed mortality of human
beings. A gay person’s death is still the death of a person. Therefore action to stop
death caused by AIDS needed to start. Meaning the play uses death as a call to
action.
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It’s difficult to discuss queer theatre without mentioning one of the most
prominent pieces of contemporary theatre. Angels in America. Another AIDS play
of its era, Angels in America flipped the script by taking on what AIDS meant.
Charles McNulty, chief theater critic for the Los Angeles Times newspaper,
reviewed Tony Kushner’s play, saying “Angels in America represents not so much
a revival of the category as a radical rethinking of its boundaries. For the
playwright, the question is no longer what the place of AIDS in history is, but what
of history itself can be learned through the experience of gay men and AIDS.”
What McNulty is showing here is that Angels in America was not about bringing
awareness to Aids as other gay plays had stressed. But instead its historical
significance. This shows that Angels in America redefined the AIDS play into a
piece of empowerment. This is exampled in Prior Walter, a gay man dying of
AIDS. He is approached by an Angel informing him that he is a prophet. By
making a dying man with AIDS a prophet, Kushner is empowering him. Therefore
empowering Homosexual men through death. Prior Walter makes a proclamation
in Angels in America “We won’t die secret deaths anymore. The world only spins
forward. We will be citizens. The time has come” (Kushner 280). In this quote
Prior is essentially rioting. He is not asking to be recognized as a human being, he
is demanding it. Because it is his right. This signifies that Angels in America was a
play that refused to sulk in the AIDS crisis, but instead use it as a platform to show
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the gay experience and empower it. Using death as a mechanic to show that
homosexuality is not a choice. The characters in the play face death (AIDS) as a
reason to stop being gay. But the characters cannot stop being gay as
homosexuality is a part of their identity. Displaying that if death is not strong
enough to stop homosexuality, homosexuality cannot be stopped. Therefore
empowering homosexuality as it withstands even in the face of death. Angels in
America uses death as a device to show homosexuality’s empowerment.
The Laramie Project is another play that showcases queer theatre being
taken from events homosexuals face. The Laramie Project is based solely on an
event that shook the gay community and the nation. In 1998 the town of Laramie
Wyoming faced one of the most significant hate crimes of our century; the
homophobic murder of Matthew Shepard. For more information on this, please
watch the video below which documents the history of Matthew Shepard’s murder.
What Matthew Shepard’s brutal murder inspired was nation-wide plea for
equality. Catching the eye of Moisés Kaufman who along with the Tectonic
Theatre Project went to Laramie on a mission. They created The Laramie Project;
a play that composed of interviews of the inhabitants of Laramie, Wyoming.
Moisés Kaufman and the Tectonic Theatre Project interviewed people affected by
Matthew Shepard’s death. That is key to why The Laramie Project is not only an
important piece of queer death in theatre but a fundamental piece of queer theatre.
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The Laramie Project was created as a response to the violent homophobia a
minority of Americans faced. A crime that was so brutal that is shed light on an
issue that was continuing to be silently accepted. Matthew Sheppard’s death is
essentially what created the play. For without it, the play would never exist.
Therefore death is the tapestry in which The Laramie Project finds its foundation.
The play is documentation of the reactions of the residents of Laramie Wyoming to
Matthew Sheppard’s death. This is exampled in a performance review by Debby
Thompson published by Johns Hopkins University.
“They (the actors) also portray the many interviewees who jarred their
preconceptions: Zubaida Ula, a Bangladeshi Muslim feminist; Romaine
Patterson, the friend of Matthew Shepard who was trans formed by the
incident into an activist; Father Roger Schmidt, who urged tolerance; and
Reggie Fluty, the deputy sheriff who, exposed to HIV when she cut Shepard
down from the fence, went on a difficult AZT regime but never once
regretted helping him.” (Thompson, 644).
This part of the play shows just a small diversity of people who were affected and
changed by Matthew Sheppard’s death. This can serve as documentation to how
Matthew’s death reshaped the community of Laramie Wyoming and created
nationwide attention to not only Matthew’s death, but the people who found a
connection to him. Showing that The Laramie Project uses death as a platform for
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life. Using the hate crime against Matthew, Moisés Kaufman is inspiring attention.
This attention creates awareness against homophobia. Preventing homophobia
inspires tolerance. Tolerance which could have been used to avoid Matthew
Shepard’s death. The harsh death The Laramie Project is used as a cry for life.
To see scenes from The Laramie Project at Zach Austin’s Theatre click the video
below.
Dog Sees God takes a spin on an American Classic. This high-school version
of Charlie Brown takes us on the journey to death in the form of teen homosexual
suicide. According to Chris Hamilton in “Homosexuality is a Factor in Teen
Suicide” “Researchers point to other factors for the high rates of reported suicide
attempts for gay males. Factors such as verbal and physical harassment, substance
use or isolation of boys thought of as sexually different as their heterosexual peers
contribute to their high rates of suicide.” (Hamilton, 64). In Dog Sees God, Charlie
Brown’s lover Beethoven commits suicide over the bullying he receives from
another character. Why Dog Sees God is significant to queer theatre is because of
its usage of death formed as suicide. Suicide from anti-gay bullying. Tobi Wong,
Jadin Bell, Kenneth Weshuhn, Jamey Rodmeyer, Ryan Halligan and Jamie Hubley
are only few of the hundreds of teen suicides as the result of homophobic bullying.
As Chris Hamilton pointed out gay males go through various amounts of bullying
that is so common it is to be expected. And the dangers of this homophobia on
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young people can lead to death. Dog Sees God is an example of suicide among gay
teens and uses death as a form of escape. The only way Beethoven can escape
homophobia is to end his life. The author uses death as an ending, both physically
and metaphorically. Beethoven’s death happens towards the end of play and
serves to represent that as a homosexual death is the only escape he will have. An
escape from the bullying and homophobia he faces. Therefore in Dog Sees God
death forms the conclusion.
A recent example of death in queer theatre would be Geoffrey Nauffts’s
Next Fall. For information on the play as well as a brief bio of the plays author,
please watch the interview Geoffrey Nauffts did for the Boston premier of Next
Fall at the SpeakEasy Stage Company.
In Next Fall the cause for the shows foundation, the motive that five out of
six characters meet at a Jewish hospital, is that the sixth character has gotten into a
tragic car wreck. This character is Luke. This one person is who has a connection
to each and every character that arrives at the hospital to his aid. He is the son of
Butch and Arlene, the estranged friend of Brandon, the employee of Holly and the
lover of Adam. Luke is the one person who connects these five very different
characters. His recovering addict mother has abandoned him for most of his life.
His estranged best friend has stopped speaking to him due to his relationship with
Adam. He has always been distant from his father attempting to hide his
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homosexuality. And the day before the car accident his lover broke up with him.
His accident is the singular reason that the five of them gather to one location.
Geoffrey Nauffts uses Luke’s impending death as a plot device to bring these very
different characters together. This can be exampled from a quote of dialogue in Act
1 Scene 1 of Next Fall. Arlene: “Well, now, Butch, you were the last one to speak
to the surgeon, sweetheart. What did he have to say?” Butch: “He said my boy’s
got fight in him…he’s gonna need it” Adam goes pale as the room spins all around
him. (Nauffts, 15-16). Through this quote in the very beginning of the play, the
characters have been made aware of how dire Luke’s situation is. Sourcing Luke’s
situation as what has brought this collective group together.
In this photo from Winthrop University’s student production of Next Fall, four characters gather into
Luke’s hospital room after his impending death is announced. From left to right Adam (Grant
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Zavitkovsky), Holly (Jasmine Gunter), Luke (Shivam Patel), Arlene (Lauren Roberts), and Butch (Allyn
Hunt). Photograph taken by Anderson Breeland.
Geoffrey Nauffts inspired Next Fall based on his relationship with his life
partner. As you can read in the article he wrote for the Chicago Sun-Times below,
they are alive and well. So why in the play inspired by their relationship, does it
end with the death of the character inspired by his lover? In his article, Geoffrey
Nauffts explains why he wrote this play. “I wrote Next Fall as sort of a wake-up
call in response to these questions1. I wanted my partner, who was not out to his
evangelical family at the time, to imagine what it would look like if we were ever
in a situation where he was lying in a coma, and I had no access, no rights, no
voice.” (Nauffts, 1). Geoffrey Nauffts wrote Next Fall as a way to show his lover
the limitations of his closeted life. To show his lover the vitality of coming out.
How important it was for them to be able to function as a couple. Nauffts
specifically choose Luke to die as an extreme of what could happen if his lover did
not come out. That if his lover was in a coma, he would not be able to see him in
his hospital room. Geoffrey Nauffts uses death here to get his point across. That
not being proud of ones sexuality can lead to death. In Next Fall, it is physical
1
The ‘questions’ Geoffrey Nauffts are referring to in his article are “(Why) am I not afforded the same unalienable
rights my fellow citizens enjoy, some of whom are less law-abiding than I am? Why does the religion of some in
this country subject so many others to bigotry and discrimination? Isn’t that one of the basic tenets our country
was founded on: the freedom to believe (or not believe) as we see fit, and to not be persecuted for doing so?”
(Nauffts, 2).
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death. However it represents death of self. To repress feelings, that are a part of
one’s self and are innate to one’s self, can destroy ones soul. Repression and
Oppression leading to the death of one’s soul. This is what many homosexual men
and women have faced. Living in hiding. Using physical death to represent
metaphorical death is what makes Next Fall so profound. Luke dies before ever
getting to truly accept himself. How sad it is to see him never be able to stand next
to the person he loves in front of his family. Nauffts uses the death of Luke to
represent the metaphorical death of one’s soul.
Since the early Greeks constructed the Amphitheatre, theatre has been used
as a device to express and explain the human condition. From religious explanation
to political propaganda to displaying and educating society on a set of moral codes.
A form of entertainment that through its time has been influenced by and used to
change the ideals of their specific time period. Ever evolving and changing with
subject matter, theatre is dependent on the current society’s social acceptance. A
major theme that this can be evidenced with is homosexuality in theatre. American
theatre with strong homosexual content has only recently developed over the past
100 years. This is mirrored to the time span in which homosexuality has become
more accepted within American culture. The boom of queer theatre was no small
feat. Homosexual individuals represented a minority that has faced global
persecution and discrimination through the ages. Since the rise of Christianity, man
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lying with man was and still is considered a sin. As western culture was dominated
by Christianity, this left little room for coming out of the closet. Making the leap
from repressing homosexuality and homosexual content, to gay marriage in certain
parts of western culture required an abundance of social change.
Through a brief history of death in queer theatre there is something that
makes itself more evident. Death marks the evolution of queer theatre. Patrick
Healy of “The New York Times” wrote the article above based on the evolution of
queer theatre. “While persecution remains a reality for most of these gay
characters, just as it does in many movies and television shows featuring gay love
stories, the widening acceptance of AIDS as a pandemic rather than a gay disease
and the broadening debate on gay marriage and gay soldiers — have led, and have
to some extent freed, writers and producers to use a wider lens to explore a broader
landscape.” (Healy, 1). What Patrick Healy is stating here is that gay culture no
longer revolves around AIDS. AIDS paved the way for other persecutions of the
gay community to now come into the fore front. Such as gay men in the military
such as In the Heart of America by Naomi Wallace. Hospital visitation rights such
as exampled in Next Fall. Gay teen suicide as exampled in Dog sees God.
Homophobic violence as established in The Laramie Project. These are just a few
examples on how gay theatre is evolving. Yet they all still have the same central
plot device; death.
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Death within queer theatre is almost always correlated around the characters
homosexuality. This can be seen easily in the AIDS theatre genre as the characters
homosexuality led them to contract aids which led them to their death. In more
recent plays where the cause of death was not aids, the cause of death can still be
immediacy interconnected with the characters sexual orientation. In The Laramie
Project Matthew Shepard, the plays unseen protagonist, is murdered as the result
of a hate crime due to his sexuality. In Bent the characters are sent to concentration
camps because they are homosexual men. In more recent theatre in Next Fall the
character, Luke, is killed by a car crash. Analyzing that Geoffrey Nauffts put Luke
in a death inducing accident to display how a closeted lifestyle can prevent one
from successfully living. It can then be inferred that oppression of who one truly is
leads to the death of one’s spirit. Therefore representing how Luke’s death can be
caused by his inability to truly accept his sexuality. Which connects his sexuality
as the cause of his death.
This examples the importance of deaths as a plot device for queer theatre. As
queer theatre evolves, death remains the constant. This is because death is a part of
homosexuality. Immediately connected to the culture. As the plays reviewed
reflected current issues at the time of their birth, they use death to show the
seriousness of its content. Therefore death is commonly used as a plot device to
drive the statements being made by works of Queer theatre. Homosexuals are here
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and queer is no longer the message being made by gay male theatre. These morbid
messages of the queer scream for the vitality of their issues. And they will not be
misheard.
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Works Cited
Chauncey, George, Jessica Shatan, Archie Ferguson, and Vicki Gold Levi. Gay New York:
Gender, Urban Culture, and the Making of the Gay Male World, 1890-1940. New York:
Basic, 1994. Print.
"Excerpts from THE LARAMIE PROJECT at ZACH Theatre." YouTube. YouTube, 04 Apr.
2012. Web. 27 Mar. 2014.
Fisher, James. "We Will Be Citizens": New Essays on Gay and Lesbian Theatre. Jefferson, NC:
McFarland &, 2008. Print.
Kramer, Larry. The Normal Heart. New York, NY: New American Library, 1985. Print.
Kushner, Tony. Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes. New York: Theatre
Communications Group, 1993. Print.
Greenwald, Michael L., Roger Schultz, and Roberto Darío Pomo. The Longman Anthology of
Drama and Theater: A Global Perspective. New York: Longman, 2001.
Gritzner, Karoline. Eroticism and Death in Theatre and Performance. Hatfield, Hertfordshire:
University of Hertfordshire, 2010. Print.
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Healy, Patrick. "New Gay Theater Has More Love Than Politics." The New York Times. The
New York Times, 22 Feb. 2010. Web. 28 Feb. 2014.
Kaufman, Moisés. The Laramie Project. New York: Vintage, 2001. Print.
Royal, Bert V. Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead. New York: Dramatists Play
Service, 2006. Print.
Sinfield, Alan. Out on Stage: Lesbian and Gay Theatre in the Twentieth Century. New Haven:
Yale UP, 1999. Print.
Thompson, Debby. "Review: The Laramie Project." Theatre Journal 53.4 (2001): 644-45.
JSTOR. Web. 27 Mar. 2014. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/25068995?ref=searchgateway:7f43bd67c85875a2e55b2feaa12498df>.
"Matthew Shepard's Story." YouTube. YouTube, 05 Jan. 2012. Web. 27 Mar. 2014.
McNulty, Charles. Tony Kushner. Ed. Harold Bloom. Philadelphia: Chelsea House, 2005. Print.
"Meet the Playwright: Geoffrey Nauffts." YouTube. YouTube, 05 Oct. 2011. Web. 27 Mar. 2014.
Miller, Leslie A., and Paul A. Rose. Suicide. San Diego, CA: Greenhaven, 2000. Print.
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Nauffts, Geoffrey. "Geoffrey Nauffts on How He’s Fighting for Gay Rights through His Tony
Award-nominated Play, Next Fall. Chicago Sun-Times. N.p., 9 May 2013. Web. 14
Oct. 2013.
Nauffts, Geoffrey. Next Fall. New York: Dramatists Play Service, 2010. Print.
Photograph from Next Fall: Breeland, Anderson. Adam and Butch Fight over a Comatose Luke.
2014. Digital. Production of Next Fall, Rock Hill, South Carolina.
Photograph from Next Fall: Breeland, Anderson. Adam sneaks into Luke’s hospital bed.
2014. Digital. Production of Next Fall, Rock Hill, South Carolina.
United States. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Gay and Bisexual Men's Health.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 26 Nov. 2013. Web. 25 Mar. 2014.