Still Acting Gay: Male Homosexuality in Modern Drama

by John M. Clum

Still Acting Gay is a revision and expansion of Clum's celebrated book, Acting Gay . The book focuses on the relationship between American and British dramas written by and about gay men and the changing gay culture those plays reflect, from the carefully enforced closet to liberation politics to AIDS to the qualified security of the present. Still Acting Gay chronicles the transition of the gay man as subject for sensational melodrama to creator of many of the most powerful and celebrated plays of the late 20th century.

Genres: Theatre

336 pages, Paperback

First published June 17, 2000

Reviews

[Scott Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a revised and expanded version of a book first published in 1992. It shocks me to realize that the year 2000 is already 20 years behind us. This edition is the same age as my outness, and I can well remember the cultural state of affairs in which this book was published. In some ways, things have changed enormously in the 21st century. For example, some of the language Clum uses around race, and gender would be considered inappropriate today. I also have mixed feelings about his ideas around bisexuality.

For me, the most interesting part of this book is a discussion of the difference between the words “gay” and “queer”, which includes some ideas I had not previously considered.

Clum discusses many plays that were written and performed so long ago now that they are more or less unknown or forgotten except amongst the most avid theatre aficionados. It’s remarkable to me that a hundred-year span of time is simultaneously no time at all, and yet very long.

This is a scholarly work and I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it as an entertaining read.