ABSTRACT
For years one of the major inspirations of gay artists has been the creative and personal partnership of composer Benjamin Britten and tenor Peter Pears, for whom Britten wrote much of his work. Godfrey Hamilton and Mark Pinkosh, who make up the Starving Artists Theater Company, are a Britten and Pears for the 1990s. Kissing Marianne was so successful that Starving Artists is one of the few companies to be invited back to the Traverse Theatre for a third consecutive festival season. Kissing Marianne raises a number of questions about gay sexuality and spirituality in the age of AIDS. One of the first volumes of gay literary criticism was entitled Like a Brother, Like a Lover. Hamilton's play asks how the metaphor of brotherhood, or, more specifically, incest, defines the emotional and spiritual intensity of gay relationships. Hamilton is a real poet for the stage. His language is daring, powerful, yet playful.
