LGBT Rights: A Tide TurningPosted August 15, 2012
NOUSE
http://www.nouse.co.uk/2012/08/15/lgbt-rights-a-tide-turning/Ntare is softly spoken, not the hot-headed activist you often expect. He has written a play, titled A Missionary Position, which has already been performed in LA: "I felt like by sitting silent I was somehow complicit or contributing to the problem. I wasn't lending my voice so to speak, to furthering the dialogue. It was uncomfortable to be silent."
Written this time last year, A Missionary Position was the product of five months in Uganda, living amongst the gay community and hearing their stories and experiences.
The voices that Ntare Mwine came into contact with during his time in Uganda came to be articulated through the play's four characters: Brigadier Bigamanus, a transgender woman, a lesbian activist and a gay priest – all read by Ntare himself. Whilst the subject matter of A Missionary Position is harrowing, he didn't underestimate the importance of forging a connection with the audience: for this Ntare used, to my initial disbelief, comedy.
This was embodied particularly in the character of the transgender woman, as she described sexual encounters with graphic frankness, much to the amusement of the audience. This was a reaction Ntare was pleased to see, as he explained: "humour is such a good way to deal with pain and suffering sometimes... There was a communal recognition that goes on when that laughter happened."
