Variety,
May 19, 1997
By Julio Martinez
(Sir Ian McKellen's) virtuosity is intact as he chronicles his
life onstage and off through brief but tantalizing performance excerpts,
culled from such diverse contributors as Shakespeare, William Blake, Tennessee
Williams, Armistead Maupin, David Hockney and others.
McKellen delves into his exquisitely developed repertoire of characters,
honed from more than 30 years of stage and film performances.
With awe-inspiring virtuosity, McKellen flows in and out of the poetry
of Blake and D.H. Lawrence, King James I's letter to his homosexual lover,
an excerpt from the autobiography of Williams and two riveting scenes from
Shakespeare's Coriolanus.
The chosen material makes very obvious that McKellen is onstage primarily
to heighten our awareness of the difficulties homosexuals have faced throughout
history to gain acceptance, dignity and respect. He accomplishes this with
devastating effect as he chronicles the 1895 conviction and imprisonment
of the immortal playwright Oscar Wilde for his homosexual activities (the
laws are still on the books in England), and caps the evening with a mesmerizing
synopsis of Christopher Marlowe's 1592 dramatic history of England's King
Edward II, who was assassinated because of his homosexual commitment to
his lover Galveston.
Copyright 1997 Reuters Limited
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