Lee and the Boys in the Back Room

Lawrence, KS: Lawrence Community Theater, 1987. Vintage window card poster for the premiere of the 1987 play, SIGNED and dated "William S Burroughs / 12/18/87," which was performed at the Lawrence Community Theatre May 8-12, 1987, the only production of the play. OCLC locates two holdings of copies of this poster, both at the University of Kansas. Scarce.

Conceived with the encouragement of Burroughs and Burrough's personal assistant James Grauerholz, playwright Paul Stephen Lim adapted Burroughs early novel "Queer" (published in 1985 but written between 1951 and 1953), and unpublished correspondence written during the period of the novel (1949-1951), and presents an experimental portrait of the author and his wife living on the fringe as expatriates in Mexico City (here as Lee and Jane), as Lee fruitlessly pursues a young American boy, with the play's two female characters portrayed by life-sized ragdolls. The title of the play was inspired by Marlene Dietrich's performance of the song "The Boys in the Back Room," performed in the 1939 film "Destry Rides Again," directed by George Marshall, and starring Dietrich and James Stewart.

Written and performed in Lawrence, Kansas, where Burroughs resided the last 16 years of his life.

10.5 x 16.5 inches on satin-finish cardstock. Light edgewear with faint rubbing and creasing at the corners, else Near Fine.

[Book #158450]