Coming Out to Play traces how people have used performance to push back against control.
Shakespeare read in prisons, forbidden plays on Robben Island, verse whispered under the guillotine—each episode shows individuals using story and voice when everything else was denied. The book also uncovers the deeper histories inside nursery rhymes and playground chants, where simple lines carried warnings or coded memory.
Across these settings, performance becomes a way to keep truth alive, often at real risk. This is a study of human defiance told through moments when someone stepped forward, spoke, sang, or recited—and refused to be silent.
