Not in Front of the Audience: Homosexuality On Stage

by Nicholas de Jongh

Not in Front of the Audience is a pioneering and important study of a neglected terrain, examining the way in which the theatres of London and New York have reflected contemporary social and cultural attitudes to 'gay men' and homosexuality.
In the 1920s and 1930s the theatre represented homosexuals as either corrupt, or morally pitiful. During the Cold War, under the influence of McCarthyism, homosexuality was perceived as not only morally reprehensible but also politically dangerous and the theatre dutifully reflected such perceptions. Until 1958, direct discussion or depiction of homosexuality was banned from the stage in Britain. But by the late 1960s the theatres of London and New York had begun to confront the issue of heterosexual prejudice and its devastating impact upon the lives of gay men and lesbians. In the wake of the AIDS epidemic, the author concludes, the representation of homosexuality in the theatre has again become an urgent and highly charged issue.

Genres: Theatre

236 pages, Paperback

First published May 14, 1992

Reviews

[Leigh · Rating 2 out of 5]

Useful as a basic survey of major modern gay plays, but terribly written. Please, get proofread before you publish.

[Luke Devenish · Rating 5 out of 5]

I well suspected this book would prove enlightening, but the surprise was that it was also highly entertaining. Thoroughly enjoyed this.

[James · Rating 2 out of 5]

This just about begins to scratch the surface of the topic. It is hampered by the author's frankly abysmal prose, the errors which litter its pages (he gets people's names and dates of plays wrong), and the entirely partial and haphazard choice of plays. It purports to be an overview of homosexuality on the mainstream London and New York stage over the course of about 70 years, but is actually only about representation of gay men - lesbians hardly feature. It may be argued (although de Jongh doesn't bother) that very few plays dealt with lesbianism in this period, but that hardly excuses the author not even mentioning in passing Frank Marcus's The Killing of Sister George.
There is a vague, and vaguely interesting, sense of narrative structure to the book's overview of representation - from stereotypical portraits of effeminate and predatory homosexuals to post-liberation assertions of gay identity. It ends on a downer, with Section 28 and the AIDS epidemic, but de Jongh entirely fails to predict that not only would Western liberal society have a complete volte face around homosexuality within the next couple of decades, but that theatre would more produce increasing numbers of gay plays in the 1990s and beyond.
One could also take issue with the author's arbitrary insistence of seeing the play's discussed in terms of their contribution to the representation of gay men and their usefulness to an identity politics viewpoint. It is a specious way of reading drama, and quite falls apart as de Jongh attempts to come to terms with such sophisticated writers as Tennessee Williams and Joe Orton.
It's a starting point, I suppose, in terms of its subject. But it is so poorly written, researched, fact-checked, and argued that it ought to have been superseded by now. It certainly does not deserve its reputation as a key text.