How is it that some creative works seem dated but others remain as fresh and impressive as when they were first born? Is it solely because of universal themes and the constancy of human emotions? Larry Kramer's "The Normal Heart" has opened at HotCity Theater, around 30 years after it premiered in New York City. Written and set during the very earliest years of the AIDS epidemic in Manhattan, pretty much the eye of the storm, it rails wildly against the inertia of the establishment, both gay and straight, in the face of the disease, when almost nothing was known about it.
The play remains shockingly moving, especially, perhaps, because we've forgotten (or never knew, in the case of younger persons) just how bad things were. It's like going back and reading a book about Watergate – one remembers again how frightening the problems were.
It is, in many ways, autobiographical. Kramer was one of the earliest AIDS activists, and always one of the most outspoken and controversial; his play is about just such a man who challenges his peers, the government and the medical establishment to get up and meet the threat. Kramer says he has made his main character more outspoken than he was, but just how much more is arguable. The organizer, Ned, John Flack, does more than speak truth to power, at times he screams it, and a barrage of invective, too, caused by the inactivity of many and the snail's pace of the few that seem to move at all.
Ned is a man who, except for his anger, seems emotionally frozen – problem parents, years of psychotherapy, no long-term romantic relationships. The epidemic of this unnamed disease is beginning to gather steam as people present to doctors with strange infections and the purple lesions of Kaposi's sarcoma. Attention, to use the line from another play currently in town, must be paid, insists Ned. He lets down his guard with a reporter, Eric Dean White, he meets as he is badgering the New York Times and as they fall in love, he softens. But not much and only at home.
Flack's Ned is someone we've all known, brittle, angry, closed-off. He's always been close to the edge and this is all too much. It's a great performance, loud, yes, but within the character. White, a calmer guy by far, is deeply believable, but one doesn't sense much chemistry in this relationship until near the end of the play, perhaps a directorial decision.
Ned creates a group to attack the disease, as did Larry Kramer. Among the group are a bank vice president, the imposing Reginald Pierre, who tries to put the brakes on Ned for reasons that seem self-serving, an employee of the city health department who's utterly powerless and in fear of being fired, played by Tim Schall as struggling and reality-based, and Ben Watts' Tommy. Tommy's a hospital administrator, a soft Southern belle who can sometimes pour oil onto the roiled waters of the group. Good ensemble work from the group, especially as they watch Ned's eruptions. Ned's brother Ben, Greg Johnston, is not quite as stiff as Ned is wired, but he's a successful lawyer, and he, too, has a lot to watch out for.
My only quibble with the play is the physician, Emma Brookner, Lavonne Byers. Dr. Brookner, who's seeing lots of these cases, is in a wheelchair from polio. The saintly disabled person is far too easy a stock character to belong in this crowd, but Byers keeps her slow and steady and avoids going for easy sympathy – not that anyone will have any extra to offer, considering what's happening.
Sean Savoie's work with scenery and lighting works smoothly, and Patrick Burks' sound and projection does, too.
Marty Stanberry, who directed this play and is HotCity's artistic director, has given us something to sink our teeth and our emotion into. Hard stuff, but worthwhile.
The Normal Heart
through September 27
HotCity Theatre
Kranzberg Center
314-289-4063