Maeve Marsden’s debut play Blessed Union is “the lesbian break up comedy you didn’t know you needed.”
Directed by Hannah Goodwin, the play was shown at Belvoir St Theatre as part of Sydney WorldPride. It stars Wentworth actor Danielle Cormack as Ruth, a lesbian mother and long-term partner to Judith (Maude Davey). Ruth and Judith have been together for 30 years. But now, over an Easter meal, the women must tell their kids that they are separating.
“Ruth and Judith have been a couple for decades,” the play’s website reads. “They have two kids and have fought hard for recognition, for rights, just to be themselves. They’ve lived at the forefront as Australia changed, while their home remained a haven.”
The veteran activists have attempted to overthrow the traditional narrative of (mainly heterosexual) relationships for all these years. Now they try to tackle lesbian divorce in an equally subversive way, which proves difficult as universal human feelings come into play.
“Now, their marriage is over. They’ve always told themselves, and others, that theirs was a different union. That they could do this reasonably, politically, calmly. Without hurt.”
“Look, we aren’t going to just fall apart like, like, like – a straight couple”, says Ruth.
“But are we bigger than our institutions? What will their children say? And what of the human heart?”
Blessed Union is probably Australia’s first lesbian divorce play. But it’s just as much about the poster-child syndrome children of gay parents might experience, a la Bette and Tina’s Angelica. While Ruth and Judith are white, their teenage son and young adult daughter are mixed-ethnicity on top of being children of lesbian parents.
While unquestioningly maintaining tradition and suppressing the vast diversity of human experience is an ongoing problem, progress can appear performative when it becomes a checklist to tick off.
“The whole point of the play is what poster-child syndrome does to a family, and what the burden of representation does to the way we live our lives and our relationships,” Marsden explains in an interview with ABC.
Blessed Union pays homage to revolutionary politics while asserting the universality of human emotion – regardless of sexual orientation.
It’s a play about “lesbians, divorce, food, family, togetherness,” Marsden says.
“A funny and moving tale of idealism, love, and the messy business of being alive, from the wicked mind of Maeve Marsden,” the play’s website states. “Blessed Union is sharp, poignant, and very pertinent. A sad comedy, a hilarious tragedy, this is a great play about us.”
