ABSTRACT
This article focuses on the nature of farce as a British theatrical genre with reference to lesbian theatre in particular. Farce is explored as a political weapon and as such is deconstructed in its traditional reactionary form in the cultural context of modern British theatre. The rest of the article focuses on a production by Red Rag Women's Theatre Company, Ooh, Missus!, which attempted a radical pastiche of the Whitehall farce from a lesbian perspective. It ends with an analysis of the current trends in lesbian theatre in London.
The main assertion of the article is that lesbian theatre in the eighties and early nineties has adopted an overtly “out” and confident identity with a clear set of acceptable humourous forms and characters. The closed nature of these “givens” is questioned in this article.
