Description
Not in Front of the Audience is a study of how London and New York theatre have reflected contemporary social attitudes to homosexuality. In the 1920s and 1930s, the theatre represented homosexuals as either corrupt or morally pitiful. However, no matter how much homosexual characters were derided and despised, by their refusal to conform they subverted conventional sexual expectations. In the Cold War and the heyday of McCarthyism, homosexuality was perceived as not only morally reprehensible, but also politically dangerous. However, until 1958, British law forbade the public performance of any play that dealt openly with homosexuality. Only briefly, in the late '60s, did the theatre confront the issue of heterosexual prejudice and its devastating impact on the lives of lesbians and gays. In the wake of the AIDS epidemic, de Jongh concludes, the representation of homosexuality in the theatre has again become an urgent and highly charged issue.
Not in Front of the Audience is a pioneering study of a neglected terrain: the ways London and New York theatre have reflected contemporary social and cultural attitudes to homosexuals and homosexuality.
In the 1920s and '30s, the theatre represented homosexuals as either essentially corrupt or morally pitiful. However, no matter how much homosexual characters were derided and despised, by their refusal to conform they subverted conventional sexual expectations. Whereas the ``woman with a past,'' a common character in late Victorian melodrama, sought happiness through social acceptance, the homosexual looked to a future outside the confines of a conservative heterosexual society. During the Cold War and the heyday of McCarthyism, homosexuality was perceived as not only morally reprehensible, but also politically dangerous. In fact, until 1958, British law forbade the public performance of any play that dealt openly with homosexuality. Only briefly, in the late '60s, did the theatre confront the issue of heterosexual prejudice and its devastating impact on the lives of lesbians and gays. In the wake of the AIDS epidemic, de Jongh concludes, the representation of homosexuality in the theatre has again become an urgent and highly charged issue.
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