Spoken Like a Gentleman: The Burden of the Voice in An Anonymous Woman’s MANWATCHING and Gary McNair’s Locker Room Talk
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Shauna O’Brien
Abstract
This article compares An Anonymous Woman’s monologue MANWATCHING and Gary McNair’s verbatim play Locker Room Talk to explore the rupture between character and actor in these two works. MANWATCHING presents the personal reflections of its anonymous female playwright on her past heterosexual relationships and the fantasies she employs when she masturbates. Locker Room Talk, on the other hand, is an edited compilation of McNair’s interviews with men about the often misogynistic language they use in each other’s company to discuss women. Drawing extensively from Judith Butler’s influential work Excitable Speech: A Politics of the Performative, this article discusses how these two works adopt different theatrical forms (verbatim and monologue) to challenge the parameters – that is, what Butler refers to as the “speakable” and “unspeakable” – of public discourse. McNair’s Locker Room Talk attempts to challenge the misogynistic “banter” used by some men to bond with their male peers while MANWATCHING attempts to create a context within which women will feel less stigmatized discussing their sexuality honestly. In spite of their different theatrical forms, however, both works exploit a similar dramaturgical approach to achieve these goals and this article attempts to demonstrate the radically different effect this same approach has on each work’s reception by audiences.
Works Cited
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© 2019 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Frontmatter
- Articles
- The Ethics of Participation and Participation Gone Wrong
- Spoken Like a Gentleman: The Burden of the Voice in An Anonymous Woman’s MANWATCHING and Gary McNair’s Locker Room Talk
- “There is No Proof”: Fermat’s Last Theorem and Historical Reconstruction in Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia
- “Who Would Disagree that in a World of Trump and Putin and Boris Johnson ... Brecht Is Not the Theorist and Playwright of Our Times?”: Bertolt Brecht’s Influence on David Greig’s Work
- The Blakean Imagination and the Land in Jez Butterworth’s Jerusalem
- Wellesley Girl: Emotion, Democracy, and the Contemporary Dystopia
- Catastrophic Futures: Tragic Children in Martin McDonagh’s The Pillowman
- Approaches to Play Directing in Contemporary Nigerian Theatre: A Study of Segun Adefila and Bolanle Austen-Peters
- Reviews
- Eva Spambalg-Berend. Dramen der Abjektion: Der Umgang mit den “Mächten des Grauens” in den Theaterstücken Sarah Kanes. Trier: WVT, 2017, 273 pp., €29.90 (paperback).
- Jaclyn I. Pryor. Time Slips: Queer Temporalities, Contemporary Performance, and the Hole of History. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 2017, xvi + 184 pp., $99.95 (hardback), $34.95 (paperback), $34.95 (PDF ebook).
- Alice O’Grady, ed. Risk, Participation, and Performance Practice: Critical Vulnerabilities in a Precarious World. Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2017, xxiv + 264 pp., €89.99 (hardback), €74.96 (PDF ebook).
- Vera Cantoni. New Playwriting at Shakespeare’s Globe. London: Bloomsbury, 2018, iii + 238 pp., £67.50 (hardback), £64.80 (PDF ebook).
- Joslin McKinney, and Scott Palmer, eds. Scenography Expanded: An Introduction to Contemporary Performance Design. London: Bloomsbury, 2017, xvii + 216 pp., £63.00 (hardback), £22.99 (paperback), £19.86 (PDF ebook). Thea Brejzek, and Lawrence Wallen.The Model as Performance: Staging Space in Theatre and Architecture. London: Bloomsbury, 2018, x + 188 pp., £67.50 (hardback), £20.69 (paperback), £64.80 (PDF ebook).
- Michael Pearce. Black British Drama: A Transnational Story. London: Routledge, 2017, 228 pp., £110.00 (hardback), £29.99 (paperback), £24.99 (PDF ebook).
- Trish Reid. The Theatre of Anthony Neilson. London: Bloomsbury, 2017, viii + 215 pp., £75.00 (hardback), £18.99 (paperback), £81.00 (PDF ebook).
- David Palmer, ed. Visions of Tragedy in Modern American Drama. London: Bloomsbury, 2018, xxii + 250 pp., £65.00 (hardback), £13.99 (paperback), £11.87 (PDF ebook).
- Adam Alston, and Martin Welton, eds. Theatre in the Dark: Shadow, Gloom and Blackout in Contemporary Theatre. London: Bloomsbury, 2017, xv + 283 pp., £75.00 (hardback), £81.00 (PDF ebook).
- David Cameron, Rebecca Wotzko, and Michael Anderson. Drama and Digital Arts Cultures. London: Bloomsbury, 2017, vii + 332 pp., £67.50 (hardback), £64.80 (PDF ebook). Peter Eckersall, Helena Grehan, and Edward Scheer.New Media Dramaturgy: Performance, Media and New Materialism. Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2017, xi + 236 pp., €103.99 (hardback), €83.29 (PDF ebook).
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Frontmatter
- Articles
- The Ethics of Participation and Participation Gone Wrong
- Spoken Like a Gentleman: The Burden of the Voice in An Anonymous Woman’s MANWATCHING and Gary McNair’s Locker Room Talk
- “There is No Proof”: Fermat’s Last Theorem and Historical Reconstruction in Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia
- “Who Would Disagree that in a World of Trump and Putin and Boris Johnson ... Brecht Is Not the Theorist and Playwright of Our Times?”: Bertolt Brecht’s Influence on David Greig’s Work
- The Blakean Imagination and the Land in Jez Butterworth’s Jerusalem
- Wellesley Girl: Emotion, Democracy, and the Contemporary Dystopia
- Catastrophic Futures: Tragic Children in Martin McDonagh’s The Pillowman
- Approaches to Play Directing in Contemporary Nigerian Theatre: A Study of Segun Adefila and Bolanle Austen-Peters
- Reviews
- Eva Spambalg-Berend. Dramen der Abjektion: Der Umgang mit den “Mächten des Grauens” in den Theaterstücken Sarah Kanes. Trier: WVT, 2017, 273 pp., €29.90 (paperback).
- Jaclyn I. Pryor. Time Slips: Queer Temporalities, Contemporary Performance, and the Hole of History. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 2017, xvi + 184 pp., $99.95 (hardback), $34.95 (paperback), $34.95 (PDF ebook).
- Alice O’Grady, ed. Risk, Participation, and Performance Practice: Critical Vulnerabilities in a Precarious World. Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2017, xxiv + 264 pp., €89.99 (hardback), €74.96 (PDF ebook).
- Vera Cantoni. New Playwriting at Shakespeare’s Globe. London: Bloomsbury, 2018, iii + 238 pp., £67.50 (hardback), £64.80 (PDF ebook).
- Joslin McKinney, and Scott Palmer, eds. Scenography Expanded: An Introduction to Contemporary Performance Design. London: Bloomsbury, 2017, xvii + 216 pp., £63.00 (hardback), £22.99 (paperback), £19.86 (PDF ebook). Thea Brejzek, and Lawrence Wallen.The Model as Performance: Staging Space in Theatre and Architecture. London: Bloomsbury, 2018, x + 188 pp., £67.50 (hardback), £20.69 (paperback), £64.80 (PDF ebook).
- Michael Pearce. Black British Drama: A Transnational Story. London: Routledge, 2017, 228 pp., £110.00 (hardback), £29.99 (paperback), £24.99 (PDF ebook).
- Trish Reid. The Theatre of Anthony Neilson. London: Bloomsbury, 2017, viii + 215 pp., £75.00 (hardback), £18.99 (paperback), £81.00 (PDF ebook).
- David Palmer, ed. Visions of Tragedy in Modern American Drama. London: Bloomsbury, 2018, xxii + 250 pp., £65.00 (hardback), £13.99 (paperback), £11.87 (PDF ebook).
- Adam Alston, and Martin Welton, eds. Theatre in the Dark: Shadow, Gloom and Blackout in Contemporary Theatre. London: Bloomsbury, 2017, xv + 283 pp., £75.00 (hardback), £81.00 (PDF ebook).
- David Cameron, Rebecca Wotzko, and Michael Anderson. Drama and Digital Arts Cultures. London: Bloomsbury, 2017, vii + 332 pp., £67.50 (hardback), £64.80 (PDF ebook). Peter Eckersall, Helena Grehan, and Edward Scheer.New Media Dramaturgy: Performance, Media and New Materialism. Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2017, xi + 236 pp., €103.99 (hardback), €83.29 (PDF ebook).
