Positive Life NSW

The Normal Heart: Broadway revival 2011On a visit to New York, Leo Reid was lucky to catch the Broadway revival of one of the earliest pieces of AIDS theatre, The Normal Heart (soon to be made into a film by the co-creator of Glee, Ryan Murphy). Later Leo spoke to Wayne Harrison, who directed the Sydney production of the incendiary play in 1989.

On a recent holiday to New York, I was crushed to learn that the revival of provocative activist Larry Kramer's seminal 1985 play The Normal Heart was sold out. But as I was waiting outside the John Golden theatre on Broadway an hour before showtime one evening, hoping a ticket would become available, a stranger walked up to me and asked, "Do you wanna see the play? I've got a ticket but can't make it". As I was about to get some cash out of my wallet to pay the man, he rushed off into the night, telling me to enjoy the show.

But enjoy the show I didn't. Instead, this play, which details Kramer's raging activism as AIDS began to ravage his community in the early '80s, left me feeling incredibly heartbroken for the millions of lives lost to this hideous virus. And of those millions, many were rejected, ostracised and discriminated against just because they were gay.

It made me angry that for way too long government bodies simply ignored gay men who were attempting to make sense of a virus that was decimating their friends, brothers and lovers. AIDS was ugly, terrifying and cruel. And it was happening to the men who had fought so hard for the increased freedom that we now enjoy and often take for granted.

At the end of the performance, as the names of AIDS's earliest casualties were projected onto the stark white stage, the entire audience was in tears. It was one of the most gripping, powerful pieces of theatre I have witnessed in my life.

Sobbing

Joe Mantello as Ned Weekes and John Benjamin Hickey as Felix Turner: The Normal Heart Photo: Joan MarcusWhen The Normal Heart was staged in Sydney in 1989, the audience reaction was remarkably identical, suggests director Wayne Harrison. He says, "For the first time I saw how the theatre could affect, maybe change, people's lives. I remember standing at the back of the Wharf Theatre during performances, listening to people sobbing. It was a highly emotional experience watching a man die on stage – you don't actually see death enacted very often in the theatre, but Larry Kramer didn't want it to happen politely in the wings. His sense of urgency, his rage, wouldn't permit it. I remember there being standing ovations – and some people too distressed to stand or even leave their seats after the final bows. They had to be helped by the ushers."

When the play opened again in Manhattan this year, legendary critic Michael Musto urged his readers to "run to the Golden Theatre if you want to be reminded of how alive you are". Musto was absolutely right. The Normal Heart was a sharp reminder to me, at least, of how relatively easy I have it compared to the men infected with HIV only two decades before.

Twist of fate

I'm 37, I've been positive since 2006, and while I was definitely aware of the stigma attached to HIV and AIDS in the 1980s, I had no idea of the crushing effect it had on our community. My only memory of AIDS in the 1980s was of course the infamous 1984 Grim Reaper ad, which frightened the entire nation. I was only 11 years old and wasn't even aware of what sexuality or its consequences really meant for me. All of my friends discussed this genuinely scary ad campaign at school, but we were just as ignorant of AIDS as our parents, our educators and the government.

As I grew up in the 1980s, I had no real idea of the destruction AIDS was unleashing on so many communities around the world. I had no idea that like the characters in The Normal Heart, gay men at that time were literally fighting for their lives. Faced with equal measures of rejection and an early, ugly death, they were also insanely terrified.

It was only in the late 1970s that gay men were finally able to celebrate some sexual freedom after years of dedicated political activism. And then, by some cruel twist of fate, AIDS came along.

War zone

Wayne Harrsion says that in Sydney, like most capital cities, "it was like being in a war zone. I remember one local journalist wrote a nasty column in the mainstream press suggesting gay men deserved this disease and the hideous – and what seemed then – inevitable deaths, so there was a real sense we were fighting not just a disease but something societal as well. And The Normal Heart wasn't a fringe project, it was happening within a state theatre company. For some actors it was a big step playing gay characters in such a high-profile arena. This was true for the straight actors as well as the gay. So there was a lot of emotion in the room during rehearsals. Sometimes an actor would just flee the room in tears, so raw and, I guess, personal did he or she find the experience, the meshing of life and art. Sometimes actors were excused so they could attend funerals. But I remember the process being fluid, rewarding, fuelled by the thrill of doing something that felt right, artistically and politically. We were all compelled to act, by the power of Larry's play and the urgency of the crisis in our own lives."

So much has happened since then. Rapid leaps in scientific discoveries, the introduction of usually very effective anti-retroviral treatments and specialised care in the Western world has made the transition for the newly-infected these days a relatively easy one.

While I have often thanked the universe I wasn't infected at an earlier age, seeing The Normal Heart made me feel incredibly grateful for all the men and women before me who suffered indignities, ignorance and injustices during their struggles. I am also grateful for the kindness of the New York stranger who offered me his ticket. Seeing the play has provided me with a new sense of awareness about our previous generation's suffering and hard work.

Kramer's rage

Larry Kramer is one of the most outspoken, unconventional and often-criticised activists of our time and he personally handed out flyers at the end of each New York performance this year, urging viewers of the play to acknowledge some home truths. I have no idea if Kramer handed me the pamphlet I was given because I was too devastated after witnessing the play to even look the person giving it to me in the eyes. However, the pamphlet is filled with Kramer's trademark rage. In it, he states:

"Please know that everything in The Normal Heart happened. These were and are real people who lived and spoke and died and are presented here as best I could.

Please know that AIDS is a worldwide plague.

Please know that no country in the world ... has ever called it a plague or acknowledged it as a plague or dealt with it as a plague.

Please know that there is no one in charge of this plague. This is a war for which there is no general and for which there has never been a general. How can you win a war with no one in charge?

Please know that the world has suffered at the very least some 75 million infections and 35 million deaths. When the action of the play that you have just seen begins, there were 41.

I have never seen such wrongs as this plague, in all its guises, represents and continues to say about us all."

No sex, safe sex, unsafe sex?

Wayne HarrisonThe play's pivotal character, Ned Weeks, urges gay men to abstain from engaging in sex until the "plague" is either controlled or cured and Wayne Harrison remembers that back in 1989, "as co-owner of The Bookshop in Darlinghurst, I recall that people bought more books – either hungry for information or keen on a leisure activity that didn't involve sex. We knew several gay men who stopped having sex with other men. One went to Queensland and married a local girl. The others just stayed home and read."

Forcing most gay men to abstain from engaging in sex, however, was impossible. To expect that, in 2011, gay men will always engage in safe sex is also seemingly impossible. In fact, statistics suggest that young gay men across the world are engaging in unprotected sex at an alarmingly high rate.

Not long after the play's recent revival, The New York Times wrote a startling piece in which young gay men admitted that while the play opened their eyes to the previous struggles Kramer and groups such as the Gay Men's Health Crisis encountered in the 1980s and 1990s, they are still not being safe all the time.

Shawn McIntyre, a 19 year-old from Queens, admitted, "I feel in this lifestyle, being safe, there's only so much you can do". While McIntyre agrees that wearing condoms during sex is always essential, when asked if he was always safe, he laughed nervously. "I try to be," he said, "I try to be."

Many young men, like this honest boy, think we're invincible. The fact is, we're not. And while we need to look after ourselves now, we also need to look after our wider community. We somehow need to educate children, teenagers and yes, even adults about the consequences of not using condoms. HIV may be seen as a manageable chronic illness, but the fact is, this virus is still indeed chronic.

Hollywood Heart

There's hope that the reality – and the history – of HIV and AIDS will be more accessible to a larger global audience with the recent news that Glee's co-creator Ryan Murphy has signed on to direct a Hollywood version of The Normal Heart.

Wayne Harrison thinks Murphy "will do a splendid job. For years Barbra Streisand had the film rights and kept threatening to make the movie. To Larry's chagrin, she never got it over the line."

Harrison says that "it's hard to speculate, though, what kind of effect it will have on younger audiences, not knowing [yet] what sort of movie Murphy or Hollywood will make. The potency of the play was that it was of the moment. It was recognisably our problem, our dilemma, our tragedy. Looking at it on film as a piece of American history might make it more about the power of the political activist – American individualism – rather than the ongoing threat of an incurable but manageable disease."

Our turn

Regardless of the future film's effectiveness, Kramer is now not only incredibly vocal about the fact that while we still need to fight HIV and AIDS, we also have another fight on our hands.

In this revised 2011 version of his show, the gay men of New York are urged to demand their right to marry each other. The day after I witnessed a performance, the historic bill was passed which allowed gays in New York the right to officially have their love recognised. The streets erupted with people jumping, screaming, hugging and celebrating.

It's now our turn in Australia. It's easy to get fatigued, repelled or complacent about activism. I'm guilty of it myself. But the hard fact is, until we are regarded as equals by our government, we have to keep fighting. It's that simple.

We also need to take inspiration from the HIV-positive men and women who, a generation before us, fought long and hard to be heard, to be treated as valuable citizens and to be provided with excellent health care. While some would argue that the stigma around HIV-positive individuals is gradually decreasing and life expectancy increasing, there is still a lot of work, education and prevention to be done.

And as the play will always potently demonstrate, no one else is going to fight our fights for us. Leo Reid

The New York Times – Life lessons in 'Normal Heart'