Drama theatre, Sydney Opera House
The 1985 play’s first run took place off-Broadway in the middle of the Aids crisis. Much has changed – but Dean Bryant’s production speaks to a new era of protest and unrest
The urgency and immediacy that fuels the Normal Heart, Larry Kramer’s full-throated, devastating and galvanising play about the first four years of the Aids crisis, is rare in conventional theatre. The form, especially in establishment spaces, can often take too long to hold its fabled mirror up to society and show us who we are. The Normal Heart is all mirror, and it demands you meet its gaze.
When the play made its debut off-Broadway in 1985, the crisis was in full effect. The play’s first set was literally ripped from the headlines: the walls were covered with news stories, quotes and names of people who had died. As the show ran, numbers of the latest total number of cases – prominently displayed – were crossed out and the new number written beneath it. A stage as a living document.