Taking the Kissing Path

Making the Homoerotic Modern in Fixing Troilus and Cressida

Authors

Kristin Perkins University of Texas at Austin

Abstract

This paper analyzes the representation of Achilles and Patroclus as lovers in Fixing Troilus and Cressida written by Kirk Lynn and produced by the Rude Mechs. This production is part of a heritage of theatre-makers and scholars debating the nature of the relationship between Achilles and Patroclus. By exploring historical understanding of these characters' sexuality and relationship, this essay reveals the fluidity of sexual discourse from antiquity to the early modern period and to now. The opacity of the original text opens the possibility of queer otherness that the "fixed" sexuality in the new adaptation does not. Ultimately, while Fixing Troilus and Cressida aims at representational inclusivity, the adaptation presents a fixed sexuality that precludes more queer readings of the historical "other."

Author Biography

Kristin Perkins, University of Texas at Austin

Kristin Perkins graduated with an M.A. in Performance as Public Practice from the University of Texas at Austin and is now a Fulbright Scholar teaching English in Malaysia. Her scholarship has been published in Theatre Topics and AWE: A Women's Experience. Her poetry, short fiction, and creative nonfiction has been published in literary journals including Degenerates: Voices for Peace, Peculiar and Inscape. Perkins has presented at Sunstone, the Association for Theatre in Higher Education, and the American Society for Theatre Research. Her main research focus is the representation of queer Mormons.