by senior contributor Brendan Kownacki
Photo credit: Scott Suchman for Arena Stage
The audience laughed and cried, and certainly stopped to think about the world as they relived the dawn of the AIDS epidemic of the early 1980s in the Arena Stage’s presentation of The Normal Heart. The play is an autobiogrpahical picture by playwright Larry Kramer, set in 1981-1984 New York City, and details the increasing advocacy in the gay community as a mysterious disease, now known to be AIDS starts to emerge.
The play initially premiered in 1985 Off-Broadway and has since gained acclaim in the theater world for its gripping story and the dark immersive atmosphere that Kramer builds as he challenges the whole audience to remember the time period and wonder what the world would be like if a more open attitude was taken to stopping the pandemic.
The production has been in Washington DC since early June, with this final week of production coincidentally taking place as the 2012 International AIDS Conference returns to the United States and takes place just down the street.
The conference has attracted big names and thought provoking discussion about the state of AIDS around the globe, and Tuesday’s announcement that one patient, known as the “Berlin Patient” has apparently eradicated the disease from his body after a bone-marrow transplant, leaves hope for the bleak picture left at the end of the play, that the epidemic will only grow to millions in the years after the action of the play ceases.
