THE ABBEY THEATRE TALKS MAN TO MAN IN 2009 ABBEY TALKS SERIES
Archives for the month of: March, 2009
In addressing the concept of ‘performativity’ in relation to Kimberly Peirce’s 1999 film Boys Don’t Cry, I think it essential to first discuss Judith Butler’s ideas about gender performativity and particularly how they relate to discourses surrounding ‘Queer’ theory. The idea of gender being essentially performative emerges from Michel Foucault’s assertion that the ‘self’ is not pre-existing but rather is constructed only through our relations with others and through structures of power and knowledge. In other words we embody and are constituted by the discourses that make up our culture. Leading on from Foucault’s idea that there is no essential ‘truth’, Butler proposes that gender is not a ‘natural’ element of ourselves or inherently linked to our biological sex, but is entirely performative.
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Bewley’s Café Theatre in association with Whose Shoes Productions present the Irish Premiere of SPREADING HER THINLY by Tracy Forsythe, directed by Joy Forsythe.
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Without further ado, The Irish Times have announced the winners of the 2009 Irish Theatre Awards:
On Thursday, I went out for dinner at Lips, a drag club on Bank Street. In search of a fun night out, I found the place on the internet. Their website describes the club/restaurant as ‘the ultimate in drag dining’, ‘with a special party every night’. As I was attending on a Thursday night I was able to catch their nine o’clock dinner show, ‘Dining with the Diva’s’, described as a ‘non-stop celebrity extravaganza’ featuring performances by Diana Ross, Barbara Streisand, Madonna, Dolly Parton, Cher and many more. Coming from a conservative, mainly Protestant town on Northern Ireland’s infamous North Antrim Bible belt, I was prepared to be shocked by the events of the evening and I wasn’t disappointed. In retrospect, I can now recognise that my shock lay in my misconception that drag queen is just another word for a female impersonator; according to Julian Fleisher this is a common mistake.
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