Lesbian Plays and Their Players

SUMMARY

This discussion focuses on various texts for the theatre by women dramatists in Aotearoa/New Zealand. It raises a number of questions initially about lesbian plays and playwrights, and then about the per-formability of gender. Finally, I consider briefly some theoretical issues to do with textual reading,Including post-structural readings of “the lesbian.” Much usage of the term “lesbian identity” presupposes that there is such a thing, and that it is fixed, univocal and stable. As my readings of these texts show, however, “the lesbian” constitutes a set of fluid identifications, expressed in heterogeneity and change. In these critical readings I examine dramatic texts generating lesbian identities, in the specific social context of Aotearoa/New Zealand.

Key Words:

• Plays
• New Zealand
• lesbian
• theatre
• Lorae Parry
• Renée
• Brandon Teena
• transvestism
• Michelanne Forster
• Juliet Hulme/Pauline Parker