Homosexuality and Contemporary Society in Mark Ravenhill's Work

G. De Buck

The unbridled violence and the shocking sexual images of 'in-yer-face' theatre conquered the British stage in the 1990s. Playwright Mark Ravenhill is influenced by the social and political circumstances of the second half of the twentieth century, that is to say the conservative regime of Margaret Thatcher. Together with his homosexual nature, this has inevitably shaped his writing. In the second chapter, Mark Ravenhill and the characteristics of 'in-yer-face' theatre will be presented. In the third chapter, four of Ravenhill?' plays will be analysed more thoroughly, in chronological order: Shopping and Fucking, Handbag, Some Explicit Polaroids and Mother Clap's Molly House. These are the four major plays in Ravenhill's oeuvre that deal with homosexuality. Yet, it is impossible to narrow down the viewpoint to homosexuality only. The abundance of other themes related to contemporary society is interwoven or has even merged with the homosexual aspect. Therefore, all characters and their problems will be analysed separately. In a fourth and final chapter, the four analyses will converge and an answer will be formulated to the question if it is possible to find some guiding principles or general characteristics in this selection of Ravenhill's work, with particular attention to homosexuality. (Excerpt from Introduction)