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Volume CXXXII, Number 20 |
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Kushner keeps audience captive
JONATHAN PEREZ
STAFF WRITER
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| Award-winning playwright Tony Kushner gave a lecture in Pickard Theater on Thursday night. His comments ranged from politics to ga rights to the Fourth of July and memories of his own experience. (Nancy Van Dyke, Bowdoin Orient) |
Tony Kushner spoke about his most recent play Homedbody/Kabul in an interview-style conversation with Marilyn Reizbaum, head of the English department. Kushner spoke of current politics, progressive Judaism, and "deviants from heterosexual normality." Described as "eerily prescient," Homebody/Kabul brings to the forefront many of the most current issues surrounding racial and political differences.
Opening with an essay entitled, "American Things" he wrote for Newsweek in 1994, Kushner addressed the distinct experience of being a young gay male in America.
Kushner also described the beginnings of his political identity. Revealing a general apprehension of American politics toward homosexuality, his speech called for a renewed progressivism.
Declaring, "no freedom that fails to grow will last," Kushner finds the true meaning of progressivism behind a belief "that there are ways to actively intervene against [social] evils." He found the underlying characteristics of freedom in "generosity" and "the basic gesture of freedom as to include and not exclude."
His speech addressed a more collective democracy, where gays are included in the "marketplace" of capitalism. Continuing, he said, "for of the principle of freedom, much that is gory and disgraceful is celebrated on the Fourth of July, much that is brutal and depressive. American history is the source for some people who believe in the inevitable fires of justice. For others, it is a source of a sense of absolute power and ownership, which obviates the need to be concerned about justice. While for others still, American history is a source of despair for anything like justice to ever come. The candied liberalism of an early day falters for having failed to consider the awesome weight of the crimes of the past, the propensity for tragedy in history, the river of spilled blood that proceeds us into the future."
For Kushner, the tension between individual rights and society complicates the idea of democracy, but doesn't seem to fully undermine it.
His absolute progressive stance stood in direct opposition to any conservative sentiments. His speech ended as the floor opened to discussion. Murmurs of disagreement were heard from the audience. At times he was even heckled by audience members who disagreed with his extreme political views, among them, Mrs. Bernstein, granddaughter of Harry Spindle.
There was no doubt in anyone's mind that Tony Kushner was alive and present in that auditorium. With his strong politics and eloquent words, he made a lasting impression and gave everyone something to think about.
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