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Gay plays are not only a reflection of the gay condition and sociopolitical climate

of the time they are written, but also actively contribute to the social progression on gay issues.

The Stonewall riots put a spotlight on gay issues and set the stage for a cultural dialogue that

would ultimately help humanize gay men. The AIDSs crisis then made gay issues a mainstream

topic. AIDS provided a point of reference, and a framework for gay plays; just as the crisis

recontextualized the lives of actual gay people. The AIDS crisis brought gay stories to the

forefront of the American consciousness, and we have since seen significantly more gay

characters and stories on stage. Gay plays before the AIDS crisis sought to humanize and bring

visibility to gay people; just as the Stonewall riots effectively brought attention to their daily

oppression, but the plays did not have explicitly political goals. During and after the AIDS crisis,

however, plays like ​The Normal Heart ​and ​Angels in America​ had deeply political messages at

their cores. These plays built on the foundation formed by the gay playwrights of the 1960s,

which allowed them to convey their messages more effectively. Although they share plenty with

their gay play predecessors, they sought more to challenge mainstream audiences into action.

Throughout the 1960s and 1970s there were a handful of prominent plays which featured

gay characters and specifically gay narratives. Art that sought to represent these groups,

including pieces known as “gay plays”, was both empowering to queer communities and fostered

sympathy from straight audiences. The push that was made to produce relatable stories written

for and by LGBT people during this time was able to shift the overton window slightly on the

issue of homosexual acceptance. Art produced by gay people, featuring gay characters,
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constitutes a unique artform, that eventually proliferated into the mainstream. Part of what is

unique to gay theatre is the idea of “camp”. Camp is the cultural pattern, often associated with an

exaggerated stereotype of effeminate gay men, but that represents the way in which the gay

community accepted and embraced a kind of over-the-top presentation. This was certainly true of

gay drama, where drag was a common component. Camp itself is a kind of cultural rebellion and

exploration of gendered presentation on behalf of gay men, one that became a stereotype for gay

art to then subvert, “male same-sex orientations undergo a process by which dominant cultural

practices can thus define, and hence confine”(Roman). Elements of camp, when they are utilized

to tell a character driven story, help distinguish a work as a gay play.

One such “gay play” is ​The Boys in the Band ​by Mart Crowley​, ​a piece which tells the

story of nine men at a birthday party, eight of whom are explicitly gay. They are gathered for

Harold’s birthday, and as the night goes on, they become increasingly intoxicated. The tone takes

a turn when they agree to play a game where each of them makes a phone call to someone they

love . The play explores the relationships amongst this group of friends, and their attitudes

toward their shared identity. The show ran off-broadway for more than one thousand

performances, “audiences-including gay people-were able to see gay characters portrayed openly

onstage... the commercial success of the play meant that plays with gay characters or themes

began to appear much more frequently” (Helbing 3). Socially, ​The Boys in the Band​ proved that

American theatre audiences were ready and eager to see shows with gay characters, and that in

the words of TheaterMania reporter Peter Filichia “​ just as some whites' view of blacks changed

after seeing ​A Raisin in the Sun,​ so too did the outlook of many straights after they caught ​The

Boys in the Band​”.

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One of the other most significant works of gay theatre of this era is ​The Madness of Lady

Bright b​ y Lanford Wilson, which premiered in 1964. It consists of a monologue by the titular

character, an aging drag queen reflecting on her life. The play pioneered the presence of an

explicitly gay protagonist, portrayed as sympathetic to the audience. It was a new concept for

fiction for gay characters to be “portrayed as humans, not as villains, depressives or

deviants"(Welsh). ​The Madness of Lady Bright​ tells a universal story of loneliness through the

perspective of a gay man, creating a connection between a theatre audience and a gay character

that had not been fully attempted before then. Lady Bright is presented in an honest and

un-sensationalized manner, which served to humanize her, and other gender non-conforming gay

men, rather than use him as a device to capitalize on any “freak show” attraction. The play was

the first off-off-broadway production to receive coverage from major publications, such as the

New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and The Village Voice, and received positive reviews

from each of them. It was instrumental in moving gay narratives into the mainstream theatre

scene, with Neil Flanagan, who played the title character won an Obie award for his

performance.

The 1960s were a time of great social change for many marginalized groups, and while

much of the focus was on the advances for the rights of African Americans and women, LGBT

people were also pushing to have the unique struggles they faced recognized on a national level.

Productions like ​The Boys in the Band ​and ​The Madness of Lady Bright​, reflect the budding

nature of what would become the gay rights movement, they did much of the very basic work of

granting the sort of legitimacy to stories starring gay characters, that until then was almost

entirely reserved for heterosexual narratives. In this way, the gay theatre of the 1960s artistically
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mirrored the political progress being made by the gay rights movement at the time, while also

sparking change within its own social spheres.

Then, despite the hard won societal progress gained throughout the 1960s and 70s, it was

all but lost because of the AIDS crisis that began in the United States in 1981. With

misinformation about the disease being widespread, and gay men being the main targets of the

disease at the time, they were put in the unfortunate position of “combat[ing] senseless

discrimination and fear.”(Darsey 314) In a rhetorical study analyzing the different sequential

periods of the gay rights movement, scholar James Darsey identifies the key values of each

period. The first era of the movement, from the mid 1950s to the late 1960s, is characterized by

“establishing groundwork”, and “truthfulness”, followed by “educating and encouraging”. This

is clearly seen in the humanizing efforts of early gay plays. With this progress made, the

movement in the 1970s was much more focused on “achievement”, specifically “recognition that

gains, once made, are not guaranteed for permanence,..maintaining an awareness of what good

had been wrought in the years since Stonewall”(Darsey 307). However, when AIDS attracted

mainstream attention, the rhetoric of the gay rights movement required a renewed emphasis on

truthfulness, “correcting general misconceptions about gays perpetuated by the mainstream

media, but most of the truthfulness appeals in this period are connected to AIDS

specifically”(314). No longer could gay artists and activists focus on celebrating their

achievements, or unifying as a movement, they were forced yet again to assert their humanness

to the world, but with a much higher degree of urgency. All art, but specifically theatre, is an

active contributor in the rhetoric of time in which it is produced. Theatre exists in a unique

position of the theatre and gay communities being so intertwined, “ It is often supposed that
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homosexuals are, by nature, artistic, and, in fact, AIDS has taken an appalling toll among gay

men in the creative disciplines”(Goldstein 297), which primed it for a response. Goldstein, a

writer for The Village Voice, goes on to say:

The arts enabled gay men to bear witness to their situation, express feelings of grief that

society often distorts, and create a model for communal solidarity, personal devotion, and

sexual caution that would be necessary to combat a sexually transmitted disease with no

known cure.(297)

The gay plays of the 1960s played the important role in laying the groundwork for the progress

that would have to made up by subsequent playwrights; they provided the essential foundation

for the furthering of gay narratives.

The Normal Heart​ premiered off-broadway in 1985, and it represents gay theatre’s

immediate reaction to the crisis; an encapsulation of this era’s emphasis on truthfulness as well

as the other most strongly held value of the movement at the time, which Darsey identifies as

“justice”(313). It tells the largely autobiographical story of gay activist Ned Weeks,based on the

playwright Larry Kramer, forming an organization to raise awareness for an unknown disease

killing off gay men in New York City. A contentious partnership is formed with Bruce Niles,

who is seen as a more agreeable alternative to Ned’s confrontational style. It is this

contentiousness on behalf of Ned that hurts his organization’s goals when he scandalizes a

representative from the New York mayor’s office. Meanwhile Ned’s boyfriend, journalist Felix

Turner, has his health decline, and eventually passes away from the disease that we know to be

AIDS. The play ends by showing the increasing mortality rate of AIDS before a blackout.
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The Normal Heart​ as a play, could be seen as more autobiographical or documentative

than narrative. It brings to the stage the reality of early AIDS activism, and the kind of futility

those activists must have felt. It raises awareness both to the virus itself, but also to those who

were first and most directly affected by it. It artistically captures the justifiable anger felt by the

gay community because of the slow response to their close companions rapidly dying of disease.

Larry Kramer wrote this work as a way of holding the media establishment accountable for their

passivity. In this way ​The Normal Heart​ is as much a piece of gay political activism as it is a

piece of gay theatre.

Perhaps the most significant work in the subgenre of gay plays about AIDS, is Tony

Kushner’s two-part masterpiece, ​Angels in America​. It is a quasi-surreal story, that tells the

interweaving narratives of people affected by AIDS, with overarching themes of progressivism,

stagnation, faith, and survival. The central character, Prior Walter, is a gay man dying of AIDS

who is given a divine mission from an angel to stop human progress, which he ultimately refuses

to carry out. Prior’s boyfriend at the beginning of the play, Louis, is so frightened by Prior’s

deterioration that he abandons him and begins a relationship with Joe. Joe is a closeted gay

Mormon man, and a friend of lawyer Roy Cohn. His devotion to his faith and to his wife are

what keeps him in the closet. Joe’s wife, Harper has a crisis of purpose upon learning of her

husband’s true sexuality, feeling that she has been betrayed. Prior’s best friend Belize is an

African-American nurse, who cares for Roy Cohn when he is hospitalized from AIDS-related

sickness.

Each of the characters has a rich inner life that informs their interactions with the other

major players at every point in their individual character arcs. Kushner integrates staples of gay
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theatre with both Prior and Belize participating in drag as part of the expression of their sexual

identity. Whereas Prior tends to embrace the flamboyance of gay culture, Louis rejects it because

he wants to be viewed as “normal” by straight society; he is out, but not proud. Meanwhile, Joe

and Roy remain entirely closeted. They represent the intense cultural stigma placed on being gay,

what is known as symbolic prejudice(Herek and Capitanio 203), specifically in the time of the

AIDS crisis, although from different sources; Joe from his religious conviction, and Roy from his

political position. Kushner also integrates real life people and events, such as Roy Cohn and the

execution of the Rosenbergs, to ground his play in reality and to provide context for the action

that takes place. He addresses the intersections of sexuality, race, and religion in the context of

AIDS. The play is written with such a precise, yet emotionally charged style of language that, in

the words of David Román it “ incorporat[es] the survivalist strategies of the earlier,

pre-Stonewall gay model of responding to oppression, violence, and discrimination with

post-Stonewall outrage, irony, and wit.”(305) It was critically acclaimed and highly awarded at

the time, and continues to be considered one of the most important American plays of the

twentieth century.

In the 2018 season, Broadway will see revivals of both ​The Boys in the Band​ and ​Angels

in America​. Both of which will be viewed in way much different than they were in their original

runs. Today’s audiences will inevitably view them with the added perspective of how gay issues

have evolved since they were originally produced. They are reminders of what gay playwrights

have contributed to every era to the media landscape, and to the progression of gay rights. These

two plays represent two radically different periods in the gay rights movement, two landmarks in

the history of social progress. Them being beloved enough by audiences to be revived in the
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same year signifies that gay plays have created an important place for themselves in the

American theatre canon. The AIDS crisis spurred gay playwrights into writing with such urgency

to ensure that their stories would not go unheard, when an uncaring establishment may have

rathered them go quietly. As an artform, theatre is a significant contributor the overall rhetorical

landscape, and that rhetoric has the ability to affect social change. Theatre in the time of AIDS

serves the vital purpose of telling truth in the form of art. Nearly 7,000 people died of AIDS

related causes in 2016, gay theatre still has a major role to play in raising awareness of this

ongoing issue.
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Works Cited

Darsey, James. “From ‘Gay Is Good’ to the Scourge of AIDS: The Evolution of Gay Liberation
Rhetoric, 1977-1990.” ​Communication Studies​, vol. 42, no. 1, 1991, pp. 301–320.,
doi:10.1080/10510979109368320.

Filichia, Peter.
[​http://www.theatermania.com/new-york-city-theater/news/10-2002/bring-on-the-men_2682.htm
l​ "Bring on the Men!"] ​Theater Mania​ October 18 2002

Goldstein, Richard. “The Implicated and the Immune: Cultural Responses to AIDS.” ​The
Milbank Quarterly,​ vol. 68, 1990, pp. 295–317., doi:10.2307/3350055.

Helbing, Terry. “Gay Plays, Gay Theatre, Gay Performance.” ​The Drama Review: TDR,​ vol. 25,
no. 1, 1981, p. 35., doi:10.2307/1145342.

Herek, Gregory M., and John P. Capitanio. “Symbolic Prejudice or Fear of Infection? A
Functional Analysis of AIDS-Related Stigma Among Heterosexual Adults.” ​Basic and Applied
Social Psychology,​ vol. 20, no. 3, Jan. 1998, pp. 230–241., doi:10.1207/15324839851036705.

“HIV/AIDS.” ​Centers for Disease Control and Prevention​, Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, 29 Nov. 2017, www.cdc.gov/hiv/statistics/overview/ataglance.html.

Roman, David. “It's My Party and I'll Die If I Want to!: Gay Men, AIDS, and the Circulation of
Camp in U.S. Theatre.” ​Theatre Journal,​ vol. 44, no. 3, 1992, pp. 305–327.,
doi:10.2307/3208551.

Welsh, Anne Marie. ​"It began with 'The Madness of Lady Bright'"​. ​San Diego Union-Tribune.​ 4
September 2005.