Drama of Marriage

JOHN M. CLUM Professor of Theater Studies and English at Duke University, USA.

"John M. Clum's The Drama of Marriage: Gay Playwrights/Straight Unions from Oscar Wilde to the Present casts a look at important interconnected issues revolving around the concept of marriage. Unique is the vantage point of playwrights whose own sexual orientation was or is partly or entirely towards men. This not only legitimates but necessitates the strong biographical approach Clum has chosen. The volume is immensely readable, garners important results by way of an incredibly dense tour de force, and animates the reader to delve deeper not only into the works but also the life stories of the playwrights discussed. Primary text and author are always the focus and are honoured in this way...John M. Clum's publications are seminal works in their field, and this latest volume is a gem." - Theater Forschung "Far-reaching in its historical and dramaturgical scope, and politicizing a previously apolitical aspect of Anglo-American theatre history, Clum's monograph is a helpful intervention into several current discourses. And, given the current divisive debate about same-sex marriage, a debate that is as divided amongst queer citizens as it is anywhere else, Clum's summation that marriage - gay or straight - is always already an 'unattainable ideal' that mere mortals forever fail in, yet find themselves compelled to 'continually strive for,' is intellectually and political brave." - Performing Ethos 'This book offers an appealing companion to Clum's celebrated Acting Gay (1992) and continues to narrate the history of gay theatre. It also will be of interest to those working on gender and the role of women in the twentieth-century theatre.' - Theatre Journal

• Introduction: The Drama of Marriage  Carpenter and Wilde: Ideal and Real Marriages  Interlude: Marie Stopes and Modern Marriage  Somerset Maugham's Inconstant Spouses  Noël Coward and Terrence Rattigan: Love or Marriage  Emlyn Williams: Growing Into Marriage  Clyde Fitch and George Kelly: Spunky American Wives and Domestic Monsters  1950s Marriages Sweet and Sour: Tennessee Williams and William Inge  'To the Death': Edward Albee's Chronicles of Marriage  Epilogue: Gay Marriage