title: Lesbian plays and their players.
abstract: SUMMARY This discussion focuses on various texts for the theatre by women dramatists in Aotearoa/New Zealand. It raises a number of questions initially about lesbian plays and playwrights, and then about the per-formability of gender. Finally, I consider briefly some theoretical issues to do with textual reading,Including post-structural readings of "the lesbian." Much usage of the term "lesbian identity" presupposes that there is such a thing, and that it is fixed, univocal and stable. As my readings of these texts show, however, "the lesbian" constitutes a set of fluid identifications, expressed in heterogeneity and change. In these critical readings I examine dramatic texts generating lesbian identities, in the specific social context of Aotearoa/New Zealand.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Dale
keywords: Brandon Teena; Juliet Hulme/Pauline Parker; Lorae Parry; Michelanne Forster; New Zealand; Plays; Renée; lesbian; theatre; transvestism