Age Queer
‘I want to be age queer by rejecting not my age but the fixed meanings that people assign to it, the roles and stereotypes that I decline to abide by.” (Applewhite, A. 2019:43)
Sickened by institutional ageism in U.K. society, a sociologist explores age queerness through the lives of Alan, an architect and gay man, and Norma, a barmaid, occasional sex worker and, later in life, an artist. He guides us through the formative political events in 1980’s London that shape their worldview and individuality, and which ground their ongoing friendship. The play takes the form of an ethnography; the sociologist alternately intruder and provocateur within the action, or guide, critic, and narrator outside it.
The play considers whether Alan and Norma’s radical, sensual pasts inform their resistance to the ageist stereotyping and challenges to their autonomy they face in later life. Is being Age Queer a viable identity?
The play runs for approximately 1hr. 20 mins.
Doors: 6:45pm
This script was supported by Theatre West in 2021 under their Arts Council funded, Zooming Ahead Scheme for Women Writers Theatre West - What (theatre-west.co.uk)
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