"Can't let yourself go when you never got it together in the first place."
Claire Dowie is speaking my language when she writes that in All Over Lovely; it's possibly the most relatable thing I've read all lockdown. I'll always be delighted to read LGBTQIAP+ characters, and Dowie has been writing them since before I was born. The multi-media approach of the first intrigues me. The strong willed women of the second - debating social, personal and political issues and escalating their conflict through counterpoint conversation - intimidate me. Two of many characters I am glad to have met on the page, and unsure how I would handle face to face.
So why am I fixated on a code that ended in the 60's and never even applied to theatre?
Both Easy Access (For The Boys) and All Over Lovely contain a certain amount of taboo. It puts me in mind of the predatory and morally corrupt portrayals of queer characters required by the Hays Code. Clearly Dowie was not putting out negative propaganda about the LGBTQIAP+ community with these works, her writing is much more left and progressive than that. The internalisation of these tropes seems pervasive - they appear as cornerstones in queer narratives. Let's note it as a thing that happened and stop doing it.
It's great to read plays from a wide range of eras; sometimes it leaves me yearning for future writing without conflicted feelings.
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