Encore

One of Ken Plummer’s principal sources of delight but also inspiration was musical theatre. This was a lifelong passion and indeed he saw elements of both his personal and intellectual life reflected in many musicals, particularly those by Stephen Sondheim. As Ken has noted, ‘I met both Symbolic Interactionism and Stephen Sondheim’s work in the early 1970s and they have always walked together for me’, illuminating forms of interaction, social life, stories and the nature of a ‘precarious and ever-changing human relational world’. In this essay, two of Ken’s ‘Old Friends’ discuss memories, stories and musicals and their importance in understanding Ken’s approach to sexualities, cosmopolitanism and friendship.