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Cymbeline Buhler King, Research Officer, School of Social Sciences, Western Sydney University

You know you’re alive with Simon Burke in full flight on stage in The Elocution of Benjamin Franklin

Brett Boardman/Griffin

Premiering at Sydney’s Nimrod Theatre in 1976, steve j. spears’ The Elocution of Benjamin Franklin was met with critical acclaim, touring internationally, including Off Broadway where it won three Obie Awards.

Returning 50 years on for Griffin Theatre’s Mardi Gras show, I’m intrigued to consider the impact of a play with this much visibility, interrogating state-sanctioned violence against LGBTQIA+ people. To what degree did it build impetus towards the first Sydney gay pride march in 1978?

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