Citation

Gullette MM. Modern Drama 2016; 59(2): 231-248.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2016)

DOI

10.3138/md.59.2.6

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Many older characters in recent plays become, or think they will become, "demented." Being old - the oldest person in the dramatis personae - is suddenly glued to cognitive weakness. The cultural message now spreading throughout our frightened world is this: if a person this old has this future as a fate, considering suicide is almost obligatory. This destiny is one of the not-so-subtle messages emanating from a group of such plays, and from the one that this essay focuses on, Tony Kushner's The Intelligent Homosexual's Guide to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the Scriptures. How is it possible that a visionary who rallied so courageously on behalf of people with HIV/ AIDS in the early 1990s fails to find a way of defending a character (and by extension, people) with mild cognitive impairment (MCI)? Kushner's dramatic choices - especially his protagonist Gus's noble political despair - might have made superfluous the choice of Alzheimer's to drive his mourning-play. The real illness of this character is neither Alzheimer's nor a death drive but the impotence of radical activism, individual and collective. © University of Toronto.

Language: en

Keywords

Cognitive impairment; Alzheimer's disease; Tragedy; Capitalism; Ageism; DSM-5; Age studies; Angels in America; Elegy; Mild cognitive impairment; Unionism