THE NORMAL HEART by Larry Kramer, directed by Joel Greenberg, with Jonathan Wilson, Jeff Miller and Sarah Orenstein. Presented by Studio 180 and Buddies in Bad Times at Buddies (12 Alexander). Previews begin Friday (October 14), opens Sunday (October 16) and runs to November 6, Tuesday-Saturday 8 pm, matinees Wednesday 1:30 pm, Saturday and Sunday 2:30 pm. $25-$35, some Sunday pwyc. 416-975-8555. See listing.
One thing you won’t find in Larry Kramer’s autobiographical, ground-breaking play The Normal Heart is complacency.
A look at the first years of AIDS in New York City between 1981 and 1984, the play premiered at the Public Theatre in 1985. Last year’s hit revival won three Tony Awards.
“I think that’s partly because the play is a reminder of how far we’ve come since people became aware of the disease,” says Jeff Miller, who appears in the Studio 180 production, staged in association with Buddies in Bad Times.
“We now know how to keep people alive, but there’s still no cure for HIV.
“And there’s a young generation of people, gay and straight, who are complacent about the danger of HIV and have no knowledge of its history.”
Kramer, who co-founded the Gay Men’s Health Crisis in New York City, chronicles the attempts of Ned Weeks (a stand-in for Kramer himself) to rouse gay men to the threat of a burgeoning, mysterious disease that seems to attack only their community. Ned’s message, seconded by a female doctor who sees the upcoming epidemic, is to abstain from sex.
The script, notes Miller, is an instructive period piece about gay life in the 80s, when the sexual revolution offered people a sense of freedom they didn’t want to give up.
But the play is also a love story, tracking the relationship between the very political Ned and Felix Turner, a closeted New York Times writer, played by Miller.
“Felix is a successful 40-something social columnist enjoying the good life,” says the actor, who appeared in Studio 180’s The Laramie Project and The Arab-Israeli Cookbook. “Everyone knows he’s gay, but as was often the case in the era’s business world, no one spoke about it.’
“And then he meets Ned, who is trying to mobilize people around the city. Felix isn’t interested in being loud or political he believes that the disease is affecting others ‘over there’ and has no place in his world. But over the course of the show Felix grows up, faces things that he never thought he’d have to and finds unexpected inner strength.”
Miller knows that some audience members will be uncomfortable with the play, written by a man who was at the epicentre of the AIDS crisis.
“It’s loud and messy in its ideas, filled with an almost unbearable passion,” he admits. “But what makes The Normal Heart a great play is that Kramer skilfully includes all viewpoints it’s not a one-sided diatribe but an articulation of opposing arguments.”
The performer hopes the production will “foster a spirited debate. I don’t think Kramer would want it any other way.
“I think we’d be doing a disservice to the play if all the audience does at the end is applaud politely and get on with their lives without having been provoked.
“Kramer is a provocateur who wants to be sure that viewers aren’t ambivalent to the situation. He wouldn’t shut up back in the 80s, and he still won’t today.”
Interview Clip
Miller and the cast’s background research for the production:
jonkap@nowtoronto.com
