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STRANGERS IN BELROSE
You may remember my cover story a couple of weeks ago on the wonderful Tommy Murphy. His much-lauded play Strangers in Between, which debuted at Stables Theatre in 2005, is in the middle of a regional run across the country. Currently it’s on at Glen Street Theatre in Belrose, then it moves to Riverside Theatres in Parramatta from the 27th.
The story is centred on Shane (played by Sam Dunn, pictured), a 16 year old boy who escapes Goulburn for the bright lights of Kings Cross, uncertain of his sexuality. It’s a masterfully written coming-of-age story, and a striking comment on contemporary ‘family’.
It came to my attention last week that Glen Street staff have been fielding angry calls from audience members who felt “disgusted” after being “subjected to gay porn”. Apparently they had intended to “enjoy” a night out at the theatre without having the very foundations of their morality shocked. Some have even demanded a refund of their full subscription. In the preview audience, 50 people walked out. The opening night crowd gave a rapturous response, but it would have been full of industry members.
As columnist Joanna Erskine of Aussietheatre.com wrote, the complainants are not simply members of the blue-rinse brigade. One Glen Street staff member noted that the most disparaging response came from a 30-something married man.
As much as this response saddens and disturbs me, it shows that Murphy’s play is doing its job. Living in an inner-city bubble you sometimes forget how deep homophobia runs once the ‘bright lights’ begin to fade.
As Erskine also suggested, it’s a rare treat for theatre to ruffle some dusty feathers out there, and Murphy and Glen Street Artistic Director Rob Robertson should be commended for having the courage to program it in the first place.
As I said to Tommy, if even a little opening has been made in the recesses of their bigoted minds, Strangers in Between has worked. It has challenged them.
I urge you all to go and see it and support this superb playwright. For details go to griffintheatre.com.au.
MINISTER FOR INEQUALITY
As Queerty muses, here’s one reason former beauty contestants and showgirls shouldn’t go into politics.
Mara Carfagna (pictured), who was recently appointed as Italy’s minister for equal opportunities (oh my god) by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, has rather paradoxically asserted her penchant for inequality by stating she would not back “pointless” gay pride.
In comments published on Monday, she said that she would not back the June gay pride event in Bologna because “gay prides are pointless”.
“Homosexuality is no longer a problem; at least not the way organisers of these demonstrations would have us believe,” she offered. “Gay pride’s only aim is official recognition for homosexual couples, on the same level with marriage. I cannot agree to that.
“Gone are the times when homosexuals were declared mentally ill. Today there is such a thing as integration into society.”
Now usually I would provide my trademark caustic reply, but I don’t think I’ll bother. The perverse stupidity of her comments speaks loudly enough for itself.
But is she for real?!
THROW AWAY THE KEY
Lambda Legal, a gay rights advocacy group, is protesting a 35-year prison sentence given to a HIV-positive man from Texas who was convicted of harrassing a public servant with a deadly weapon after he spat on a police officer.
They are arguing that the saliva of HIV-positive persons should be considered a ‘deadly weapon’. Well, duh! I’m alarmed this is even in question.
The Federal Centres for Disease Control and Prevention has said that no one has ever contracted the AIDS virus from saliva, and that the risk of such infection is extremely low.
Nevertheless the prosecution successfully argued that “no matter how minuscule, there is some risk. That means there is the possibility of causing serious bodily injury or death”, which is apparently the definition of a ‘deadly weapon’.
Needless to say, considering how many dangerous misconceptions surround AIDS, this ruling is gravely negligent in every sense of the word.
RESTATING HIS OBVIOUS (STUPIDITY)
In what is believed to be a reaction to the gay marriage ruling in California, ‘Il Papa’ (aka ‘Dopey Popey’) has said that “the union of love, based on matrimony between a man and a woman, which makes up the family, represents a good for all society that cannot be substituted by, confused with or compared to other types of unions.”
As the wonderful Joe from Jo My God quipped, and then he picked out his favourite beaded gown and went to a tea dance.
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