Moore to Theatre Past: Queer Historiography and the Partnership of John Henry Moore and Jim Haynes as Foundational to British Alternative Performance Practices

Abstract

This article features original interviews with Jim Haynes and John Henry Moore to explore their foundational roles in Britain’s burgeoning experimental performance practices of the 1960s. Despite acknowledged impacts of their work on the British countercultural scene, particularly that of Haynes, their queer sexualities, companionship, and three decades of co-habitation are broadly overlooked in historical accounts. This research challenges dominate forms of evidence in theatre history by employing queer historiography, placing significance on the personal lives and partnership of Haynes and Moore as critical to understanding their impacts and disparate legacies of co-founding the influential London Traverse Company, the London’s Arts Lab, and the underground newspaper International Times. By addressing marginalised sexualities in the 1960s and 70s – namely homosexuality, bisexuality, and non-monogamies – this work proposes ways of thinking queerly across history that reassess problematic gaps and erasures while centring queer models of solidarity relevant to today.