The windiest militant trash
Important Persons shout
Is not so crude as our wish:
What mad Nijinsky wrote
About Diaghilev
Is true of the normal heart;
For the error bred in the bone
Of each woman and each man
Craves what it cannot have,
Not universal love
But to be loved alone.
— from “September 1, 1939” by W. H. Auden (1907 –1973)
First produced in 1985, The Normal Heart follows rabble-rouser Ned Weeks, an obnoxious but loveable writer who disseminates information with angry, nasty diatribes about this strange new disease, the one which will be named GRID and then AIDS; in doing so, he alienates the gay community that he seeks to help. As if his confrontational style weren’t harsh enough, he also delivers an unpopular message; “quit having sex or die”, which is antithetical to a community who sees promiscuous sex as part of a social revolution. Some eyes will be misty, some guts will be wrenched, and some souls will be startled after attending Larry Kramer’s seminal, beautiful, searing play about the earliest days of the AIDS epidemic, based on his experience organizing Gay Men’s Health Crisis in New York.
And what an awesome play to open Redtwist’s newly renovated venue on August 25, 2024. Winner of Tony, Drama Desk and Olivier Awards, The Normal Heart tells the story of an advocacy group that struggled against government suppression and internal strife in the face of the disappearance of their community. This humanist play, written more than 40 years ago about a small group of advocates calling for action from a government that insists that nothing is wrong, seems darkly familiar and more universal than ever.
It is a remarkable piece of writing in that Kramer uses the stage as agitation propaganda, but still manages to create distinct and very human characters who are fraught with frailties; they are also very very funny. In the zeitgeist of 1985, when President Reagan had yet to utter the word “AIDS,” audiences were horrified to hear about the needless foot-dragging of both society and government, both of which refused to treat the epidemic as a medical emergency because it mainly afflicted homosexuals. To arouse wrath, Kramer litters his work with polemics, diatribes, and damning information; were it not for the humanity and love within his play, the hurling of statistics would become relentless.
It truly is one of the greatest plays of our time. Part thriller, part love story, and part highly-politicized leftist theatre, The Normal Heart, like Bertolt Brecht’s agitprop treatments, contains both heroic victims and clear-cut villains, such as bureaucrats and an unseen mayor (based on Ed Koch, who is stunningly outed in the play). Much of the material, especially the astounding inattention to the disease from the powers-that-were, remains shocking. This is one not to be missed.
The Normal Heart Cast
Top: Joshua Servantez (Mickey), Tamara Rozofsky (Dr. Emma), Cameron Austin Brown (Tommy)
Middle: Gardy Gilbert (Hiram), Peter Fernading (Ned Weeks), Zachary Linnert (Felix Turner)
Bottom: Philip C. Matthews (Bruce), Christopher Meister (Ben Weeks), Caleb Crawford (Craig)
The Normal Heart production team includes Ted Hoerl (director); Rashaad A. Bond (assistant director); Taylor Pfenning (costume designer); Nick Bartleson (props designer); Ashly Demay (dramaturg); Cat Davis (lighting designer); Amy Rappa (stage manager); Dusty Brown (co-artistic director) and Eileen Dixon (co-artistic director).
photos provided by Redtwist
The Normal Heart
Redtwist Theatre, 1044 W. Bryn Mawr
Thurs-Sat at 7:30; Sun at 3:30
runs August 25 – September 29, 2024
for tickets ($35 with certain discounts and pay-what-you-can on Fridays), visit Redtwist