Jean Racine -- Translated and Adapted by English Gay/Queer Artists in the 1990

What is it about?

This article explores the 'presence', in 1990s queer/gay literature, theatre, and culture of _Bajazet_, a1672 tragedy by the great French playwright Jean Racine. My work looks in particular at the fact that the UK's most prominent emerging gay novelists, Alan Hollinghurst and the UK's most outspoken, courageous queer filmmakers, painters and writers (Derek Jarman) had attended the same public school. As the 1990s began, and as the HIV/AIDS crisis deepened both artists turned to a violent and terrifying late seventeenth-century play, (_Bajazet_). Hollnghurst translated _Bajazet_ into English and a production of that translation was performed in 1990. As Derek Jarman adapted Christopher Marlowe's 1593 play, _Edward II_, for the cinema, he turned Marlowe's unwieldy text into a sleek, short nightmare,,strikingly similar to a play by Jean Racine.

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Why is it important?

This article reflects on the roles that theatre, translation, education, and adaptation have in enabling audiences to reflect moments of historical crisis and discomfort.