Abstract
“Gary and I have a kind of a marriage,” explains a gay father to his traumatized adolescent son in the groundbreaking 1972 telefilm That Certain Summer.1 That line seemed daring at the very beginning of gay liberation and decades before the gay marriage debate. However, marriage seems the only way for Doug (Hal Holbrook) to explain his relationship with his partner, Gary (Martin Sheen), though Gary, the younger and more politicized of the pair, knows that the lack of a marriage license reflects a lack of social acceptance to society at large. Gary even bristles at the “whiff of patronization” in the tolerance of some of their friends and relatives. However contested the word “marriage” remains for long-term, loving, same-sex relationships, it is the most apt metaphor for them.
He got married, had kids and then came out. That’s the ways they did things. Very traditional, very fucked up.
Terrence McNally, Some People
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Notes
Drew Pautz, Love the Sinner. London: Nick Hern Books, 2010, p. 115. Further references are to this edition. Love the Sinner was first performed in the National Theatre Cottesloe Theatre on May 4, 2010, in a production directed by Matthew Dunster. Jonathan Cullen and Charlotte Randle were Michael and Shelly.
John M. Clum, Still Acting Gay: Male Homosexuality in Modern Drama. New York: St. Martin’s, 2000. p. xiii.
Samuel Adamson, Southwark Fair. London: Faber and Faber, 2006. Further references are to this edition. Southwark Fair was first performed in the National Theatre Cottesloe Theatre on February 10, 2006, in a production directed by Nicholas Hytner. Con O’Neill was the wayward husband, Patrick, and Michael Legge was the hopeful waiter, Aurek.
Copyright information
© 2012 John M. Clum
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Clum, J.M. (2012). Gay Playwrights, Gay Husbands, Gay History. In: The Drama of Marriage. Palgrave Studies in Theatre and Performance History. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137013101_9
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137013101_9
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, New York
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-34139-9
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-01310-1
eBook Packages: Palgrave Theatre & Performance CollectionLiterature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)