I had tried to access some of those books, like The Well Of Loneliness, in the university library when I was a student. As a fan of the genre, and Ann’s Beebo Brinker Chronicles in particular, I couldn’t wait to talk to her and find out more about the woman behind the pulp.ĭIVA: Do you remember the first time you discovered lesbian pulp novels existed?ĪNN BANNON: Yes, it was very exciting! I knew there were such things as serious literature about the gay – well, it wasn’t really a community back then – but gay people generally. Through reading Ann’s books, countless LGBTQI+ women saw themselves represented for the very first time, felt profoundly less alone and, inevitably, developed an almighty crush on archetypal butch heartthrob, Beebo Brinker. Not only were they brilliantly written and packed with emotion, they provided a lifeline. These brightly covered paperbacks were remarkable. Only when she wasn’t making dinner or taking care of her two young children, she was busy writing lesbian romance novels under her pseudonym, Ann Bannon. To the outside world, Ann Weldy was a regular 1950s housewife. Adapted from the 1950's and 1960's lesbian pulp novels by Ann Bannon, the play celebrates the era when "the love that dares not speak its name" began breaking the old rules.The queen of lesbian pulp on fan encounters, FBI files and the real life Beebo Brinker BY ROXY BOURDILLON Both pine for each other, but before they can reunite, they find themselves entangled in the web of Beebo Brinker, a butch denizen of the bars with a soft spot for young lesbians fresh off the bus. Beth and Laura, secret lovers in college, went separate ways after graduation: Beth married and had children Laura moved to New York. THE PLAY: Set in pre-Stonewall Greenwich Village, THE BEEBO BRINKER CHRONICLES follows the lives and loves of Laura, Beth and Beebo as they navigate uncharted territories of desire. " gently kid the pulpy melodrama of Bannon's dialogue, while always making sure to render her sharp psychological portraits with lots of flesh on their bones…every theatergoing lesbian and gay man must see this sexy and historically important show-and straight audiences will find it very entertaining and enlightening as well." -NY Blade. "…there's gold in that dime-store pulp…far from being a simple sepia-toned snapshot of the past, this colorful portrait of gay life in the Village startles with the truths it flashes amid the one-liners and melodramatic confrontations." -NY Magazine. But it doesn't settle for caricature…complex emotions darkly edge the play's absurdities, anchoring what could easily have been an exercise in camp." -NY Times. Based on the books I am a Woman, Women in the Shadow and Journey to a Woman by Ann Bannon "THE BEEBO BRINKER CHRONICLES aggressively goes after laughs, playing with the novels' more dated and histrionic elements.
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