Robert Lord Diaries

Robert Lord (1945– 1992) is an important figure in the history of literature and theatre in Aotearoa New Zealand. Co-founder of Playmarket and author of Well Hung, Bert and Maisy and Joyful and Triumphant, Robert Lord wrote incisive and often satiric radio and stage plays, experimenting with traditional theatre forms and incorporating queer characters at a time when almost nobody else did. His diaries, which record his life from 1974, when he first moved to New York, until his death in Dunedin in 1992, capture the highs and lows of his writing practice, the theatre world and his social life. Revealing the dramatic contrast between life as a gay man in 1970s and 80s New York – a world of sex, drugs and socialising – and provincial New Zealand, with its respectable living rooms, fields of carrots and the occasional homoerotic demonstration of sheep shearing, his diary entries tell of torn loyalties and reveal the intense creative momentum Lord forged from his dislocated, outsider status.

Vanessa Manhire is a researcher and editor and a trustee of the Robert Lord Writers Cottage Trust, which administers a residency programme at Robert’ s Dunedin cottage. She has a PhD in English from Rutgers University. Nonnita Rees co-founded Playmarket, and worked at Downstage and Playmarket in the 1970s and 80s. She is a cultural policy analyst and Chair of the Robert Lord Writers Cottage Trust. Chris Brickell is Professor in the Sociology, Gender Studies and Criminology Programme at Otago University. He has written extensively on the history of gay men in New Zealand. His books include Mates and Lovers: A History of Gay New Zealand, Queer Objects (co-edited with Judith Collard) and James Courage Diaries (a Times Literary Supplement 2022 Book of the Year).