The Boys in the Band: A Play in Two Acts

Michael and his homosexual cronies throw a birthday party for Harold, a clever young Jew with a liking for pills and pot. Other guests are Donald who, like Michael is undergoing psychoanalysis and is the nearest thing Michael has to a real friend; Emory who is the only one who is obviously a raging queen; Hank who has left his wife and children to live with Larry and Bernard, a tall Negro.As his present for Harold, Emory has rented a gorgeous blond hustler, Cowboy.While waiting for Harold and his live present to arrive the boys enjoy their usual brittle jokes and bitchiness, referring to everyone as ‘she’, using girlish names and referring to favoured stars such as Rita Hayworth and Judy Garland. It soon becomes clear that they are seriously disturbed with Bernard perhaps the most balanced and Michael the nastiest by far. Like the others he is troubled about growing old and losing his looks and hair. He has travelled the world and is now seriously in debt. A heavy drinker, he has been on the wagon for five weeks but events soon make him reach for the bottle. Booze only makes him more hostile, sarcastic and abusive. He takes particular offence against dumb but harmless Cowboy.Eventually Michael turns his malice on Alan with whom he roomed at college whilst still hiding his homosexuality. Alan has turned up unexpectedly at this party unaware that he is amongst homosexuals apart from Emory whom he assaults for being a freak.To make Alan confess that he is one of them, Michael tries to organise a game of phoning the person one most loves. He fails miserably and the party breaks up in disarray.