Mistaken Identity

So which isworse? The suggestion that William Shakespeare was queer or bisexual or the notion that he may have been a Catholic who, at one point, fled to Ireland? What about the idea that all British people should feel responsible for the tyrannization of Ireland for 800 years? Or the counterview: that the souls of the British were eroded by their history of colonisation?

These, and other provocative polemics probably account for the relative failure of Frank McGuinness play Mutabilitie when it opened in London in 1997. At least, according to Michael Caven, Artistic Director of the Theatreworks Company, who also directs the Irish premiere of the play at the Samuel Beckett Theatre, Trinity College, Dublin until September 23rd.
Its world premiere was at the Royal National Theatre and (1) the idea that the British should feel responsible for what happened in Ireland, (2) the fact that they didn t know Irish history and (3) the idea that their sacred poet came here, was Catholic, gay and started chasing Irish people, sexually, were, I guess some of the things audiences found hard to accept he says.
Michael Caven suggests that Mutabilitie is, eh, not only the most important play in 500 years but the greatest of all Irish plays. That s what he says in the Theatreworks Press Release. Isn t such a claim slightly OTT?
It s me putting my neck out, yes! he laughs. But I do believe it. Frank is trying to explore so many of the strands in the story of these islands that have torn each other to pieces.
Everyone knows, in Ireland, the consequence of English rule in Ireland but nobody realises the consequence, to the English soul, of having been an imperial power. It cost them dearly. I m a half-caste, part from Cork, part from Suffolk, so I live this dual existence. And I know this journey is incomplete. That s why Frank is so extraordinary a writer. Because he always imagines the other . He s trying to say, in this play, there are no good guys , no bad guys , just consequences to our actions.
Frank McGuinness, it s argued, does imagine the other because he, himself, has always felt torn as a result of his homosexuality, which he made public relatively recently. What would Michael say to those who claim that in Mutabilitie, McGuinness, once again, externalises these inner tensions?
People who say that are bigots, he exclaims. I m a straight man but many of my truest friends are gay and I think that we here today, in Ireland, have a huge journey to travel in terms of that subject. Everyone says oh gays are alright, but don t, for fuck s sake, put them in front of me on the stage. I don t want to see William Shakespeare as a gay man! . The truth of the matter is that the man s sexuality was almost certainly bisexual. So, at that level alone this will be a difficult play for people. But whose difficulty is this? Frank McGuinness or an audience s? That is something people will have to decide for themselves.
Mutabilitie is a play Michael Caven almost proudly admits people will have to work at to fully appreciate.
But why blame the play itself? he continues. Frank has every right to re-imagine any time and any place. That s what theatre is for. It s not about realism. Or real history. It s about imagination and dreams. That s why I do this kind of work.