GLASGAY! TENNESSEE WILLIAMS
Queerandloathinq
Steve Cramer talks to Glasgay! artistic director Steven Thomson and author Derek McLuckie about the Tennessee Williams retrospective that fronts this year's festival
ome years ago. I attended a conference
where a debate about the work of
Tennessee Williams came very nearly to blows. The bone of contention involved ('at (m a Hot Tin Roof. in which the character Brick confesses an attraction to a friend that surpasses
the usual male bonding. ()ne speaker spoke of
this relationship as homo-social. that is. a relationship between two heterosexual men that extended beyond what would normally be expected in terms of fraternity. This. however. was not explicitly a homosexual relationship: perhaps we could take Brick at his word when he claims not to have had sex with his old hombre. This contention led to a legendary shouting match at the conference. with one faction defending Williams’ reputation as a homosexual writer codifying this experience into a heterosexual language. while the other side claimed for him the quite separate title of ‘queer' writer.
The conflict epitomises an academic debate between traditional and contemporary queer theorists. The earlier variety is intent on uncovering hidden themes carefully concealed by writers who wanted to convey a homosexual aesthetic through codes not available to a heterosexual audience. The more modern approach is to look instead at the ways in which taboo subject matter can be keyed into by any
audience. since all of us are a complex mix of
gay/straight. male/female. infantile/adult beings. The first group will. for example. make a great deal of the fact that ‘Iiamest‘ was a code word in
Oscar Wilde‘s concealed gay language of
Victorian London. so the title of his most noted play had quite separate meanings for homosexuals and heterosexuals. The more contemporary queer theorist will speak instead of the way in which even the most ostensibly ‘straight‘ couples might indulge in BI)SM. anal intercourse or any number of activities that. in a
traditional 50s nuclear family version of
‘straight‘. would be seen as unacceptable.
All this is by way of a preamble to what looks to be a pretty interesting little festival in Glasgow this year. Glasgay! 2008. while including other work. is paying particular attention to the work of Tennessee Williams. Most theatregoers know about the tragic life often thinly disguised in his autobiographical plays. from the obvious gay
male thinly masked under the character of
Blanche Dubois in A .S'treeteur Named Desire. to the above hotly contested gay man at the centre of Cut (In a Hot '17:: Roof. But much of his work has been appropriated as .s'peei/ieally about the
16 THE LIST 18 Sen—2 Oct 2008
Tennessee Williams, below: Taylor and Newman in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
‘THERE IS THAT PILL- POPPING, BOOZE- SOAKED SENSE OF STRAIN UNDER HIS WORK THAT ANYONE MIGHT RELATE TO'
gay experience. While Steven 'I‘homson. director of Glasgayl. does not question the undeniable homosexual experience catalogued in Williams‘ oeuvre. his aim in this festival is more about ‘queering' Williams‘ work in the broader. more contemporary sense.
It's a delicate balance for Thomson to tread. but the programme looks fascinating. As well as a production of the more common .S'udr/enly [11st Smmner from the Tron house company. there is a series of almost completely unknown Williams short works which will be premiering in the UK. A new play by Derek McLuckie. lily-.s‘i'mi >