ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how storytelling through monologue performance is used to depict queer sexual discovery through spoken word in UK Fringe theatre. Using Sam Ward’s Five Encounters of a Site Called Craig’s List (2017),and the author’s play Three Way (2021) as case studies, the article explores how this storytelling style is used to its advantage as a mode of depicting sexuality rather than physically depicting these acts on stage. These plays explore sexual discovery and sexual awakening in a variety of ways, with each interaction being described rather than depicted. In doing so, collectively, these plays depicted queer sexual discovery across the spectrum through intimate monologue storytelling. This article interrogates the language used in the scripts for these plays and how this language hinders or aids their depiction, referencing the performances of Five Encounters… and Three Way and exploring how their use of audience interaction in Fringe venues when telling stories of a sexual nature contributes to the audience experience.
