This study will investigate the Gay Sweatshop Theatre Company (TGS). They are “the UK’s first gay theatre company” (Greer, 2012, 34). There will be an exploration of society and the politics at the time TGS was formed and how this has shaped the work they made. Throughout the study, I will focus specifically on their performances of Mister X (MX) and Any Woman Can (AWC) which explore homosexuality from a male and a female perspective. I will research the types of performances they created, analysing their presentation of homosexuality and the language used. I will investigate the impact the performances had on their audiences. I will analyse primary sources such as play transcripts written by the company and reviews. To support my study, I will investigate gender theory, feminist theory, and the work of Judith Butler to examine how their work was ground-breaking. I hypothesise that this study will find that TGS performances have had a profound effect on society including their audiences, and performers. I believe they will have positively impacted the presentation of homosexuality in performance.
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