What do you think?
Rate this book
Global Queer Plays
A unique anthology bringing together stories of queer life from international playwrights, these seven plays showcase the dazzling multiplicity of queer narratives across the globe: the absurd, the challenging, and the joyful.
From the legacy of colonialism in India to the farcical bureaucracy of marriage law in Kosovo; from a school counsellor in Taiwan coming out as HIV+, to coming of age in an Israel-Palestine coexistence camp, this is a genre-spanning collection of global writing.
Originally selected and performed as part of the Arcola Queer Collective’s Global Queer Plays call-out event.
From the legacy of colonialism in India to the farcical bureaucracy of marriage law in Kosovo; from a school counsellor in Taiwan coming out as HIV+, to coming of age in an Israel-Palestine coexistence camp, this is a genre-spanning collection of global writing.
Originally selected and performed as part of the Arcola Queer Collective’s Global Queer Plays call-out event.
- GenresDrama
412 pages, Paperback
Published December 10, 2018
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
May 12, 2019
Overall a very inspiring and enjoyable read, but I feel like I have to rate them individually.
Reading a play sort of feels like living half the experience of what the text is actually meant to be, but it was so nice to have this wide selection of queer plays from all over the world.
Individual ratings:
• Contempt (India): **** This was nicely done, very subtle but powerful. The final scene when they talk about the couple in the lift really moved me.
• 55 Shades of Gay (Kosovo): * The only play in this compilation I didn’t like at all. It is as dreadful as its title suggests. I know it’s meant to be funny, sarcastic, a clever satire, but I just found it dull and forced.
• No matter where I go (Jordan): **** An original way of retelling painful memories of daily life and sometimes being exposed as a queer person whilst relating it to the actual places where such things happen.
• Only the end of the world (France): *** I’d seen the film by Xavier Dolan, which is uneven but enjoyable mostly because of the outstanding actors in it. This might work if watched onstage, as the characters are all very vivid, but as a reader I found myself dreading and sometimes skimming through the endless, repetitive monologues and I felt like the story led nowhere.
• Taste of Love (Taiwan): **** Much like “Contempt”, this is a quiet yet powerful way of telling a story of marginalised characters. The dialogues are brilliant and the outcome is very rewarding, but quite sad.
• Peace Camp Org (Egypt): ***** Brilliant. Do read the author’s disclaimer at the beginning! It makes everything much more poignant. This was so nicely done, I’d love to see it performed on a stage. The ending is devastating, I could really picture it in my head.
• Winter Animals (Argentina): ***** My favourite one in the book. Weird, mysterious, moving and sad. Very particular writing and aloof characters. Another one I would be glad to see onstage. Can’t wait to read it in Spanish.
Reading a play sort of feels like living half the experience of what the text is actually meant to be, but it was so nice to have this wide selection of queer plays from all over the world.
Individual ratings:
• Contempt (India): **** This was nicely done, very subtle but powerful. The final scene when they talk about the couple in the lift really moved me.
• 55 Shades of Gay (Kosovo): * The only play in this compilation I didn’t like at all. It is as dreadful as its title suggests. I know it’s meant to be funny, sarcastic, a clever satire, but I just found it dull and forced.
• No matter where I go (Jordan): **** An original way of retelling painful memories of daily life and sometimes being exposed as a queer person whilst relating it to the actual places where such things happen.
• Only the end of the world (France): *** I’d seen the film by Xavier Dolan, which is uneven but enjoyable mostly because of the outstanding actors in it. This might work if watched onstage, as the characters are all very vivid, but as a reader I found myself dreading and sometimes skimming through the endless, repetitive monologues and I felt like the story led nowhere.
• Taste of Love (Taiwan): **** Much like “Contempt”, this is a quiet yet powerful way of telling a story of marginalised characters. The dialogues are brilliant and the outcome is very rewarding, but quite sad.
• Peace Camp Org (Egypt): ***** Brilliant. Do read the author’s disclaimer at the beginning! It makes everything much more poignant. This was so nicely done, I’d love to see it performed on a stage. The ending is devastating, I could really picture it in my head.
• Winter Animals (Argentina): ***** My favourite one in the book. Weird, mysterious, moving and sad. Very particular writing and aloof characters. Another one I would be glad to see onstage. Can’t wait to read it in Spanish.
April 30, 2022
Gained the most perspective from Contempt, No Matter Where I Go, and Peace Camp Org, while Winter Animals and Taste of Love brought great connection across cultural boundaries. Only the End of the World was interesting to read, especially for the way lines are written so closely to realistic trains of thought and dialogue. 55 Shades of Gay didn’t land for me at all. Spoilers ahead: Parts of it seemed like it could have legs, but the framing of NATO uncritically as a good guy and supporter of the protagonists colours one’s perception of the protagonists themselves, and the ease with which the protagonists hold the town’s economy hostage is reminiscent of pinkwashing in modern day countries that don’t acquiesce to western capital. Putting a queer face on unethical practices doesn’t make the unethical suddenly ethical.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 14, 2018
an utterly cohesive collection, selected and ordered with meticulous detail. i would have loved to see some of these in performance - but nonetheless they all read well and seem to have been translated well. i would love to return to some of these plays another time.
October 9, 2021
I love reading work about queer people from different cultures, but on the whole I think the pieces maybe sacrificed some craft in order to address a topical issue.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews