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Canberra Today 13°/16° | Saturday, March 30, 2024 | Digital Edition | Crossword & Sudoku

‘Important,’ angry play affirms the power of love

BILLED by Everyman Theatre as “one of the most important plays of the 20th Century”, American writer Larry Kramer’s  Tony Award winning play,  “The Normal Heart,” is about the hit the stage of the Courtyard Studio.

Will Huang, Jarrad West, photo by Fran Tapia
Will Huang, Jarrad West, photo by Fran Tapia

Directed by Karen Vickery, the play, first performed in 1985, plays takes us into the first years of the AIDS crisis in New York.

It is 1981, think disco, fashion, the lead up to the end of the millennium and the end of the sexual revolution. Though freedom and equality seem to be just around the corner, this  story is full of violence, intolerance and  disease as a  few people, led by  activist Ned Weeks, the gay founder of a prominent HIV advocacy group,  try desperately to warn the world that a plague is coming—a disease that doesn’t discriminate between  race, age, sex or wealth.

While at first glance the play appears to be a polemic against the government and the world for its inaction and silence when the AIDS crisis first began, Everyman says it is in fact a story of love.

Jordan Best, photo Fran Tapia
Jordan Best, photo Fran Tapia

Cast member Michael Sparks, who was living in New York and working with the Gay Men’s Health Crisis at the time “The Normal Heart” was set, met the people who became the characters in this play, so has been an invaluable source of advice to his fellow actors.

Playwright Kramer, who personally  helped to found several AIDS-activism groups, including Gay Men’s Health Crisis and AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, has acknowledged his debt to real-life people.

Everyman Theatre, winner of several Canberra Critics’ Circle awards for excellence, has pulled together a formidable cast of actors in  Teig Sadhana,  Sparks,  Jarrad West,  Christopher Carroll,  Jordan Best,  Chris Zuber,  Will Huang,  Rob deFries  and  Riley Bell.

‘Fierce,’  ‘stormy’,’ articulate’ and ‘inflammatory’ are words used to describe the work by Kramer’s admirers and detractors. This play sure to make audiences feel very angry.

 “The Normal Heart,” Courtyard Studio, Canberra Theatre Centre, Oct 21-29, bookings to canberratheatrecentre.com.au  or 6275 2700.

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Helen Musa

Helen Musa

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