NCJ Number
123595
Date Published
1989
Length
8 pages
Annotation
This chapter discusses the different ways in which the two most prominent recent U.S. plays about AIDS, William M. Hoffman's "As Is" and Larry Kramer's "The Normal Heart," attempt to bring audiences into contact with a physical and moral disaster they might otherwise repress or ignore.
Abstract
Besides responding to the tragedy of the epidemic, both plays focus on the divisiveness that the AIDS epidemic can bring, divisions both within the homosexual world and between the homosexual and heterosexual communities. The plays differ in the degree to which their characters and interactions overcome divisiveness. Although "The Normal Heart" urges connection between lovers, brothers, friends, political allies, and doctor and patient, it does not imagine a world where this is possible for long. At the end of the play, only the two heroes are capable of a moral stand. All others are found wanting. In "As Is," on the other hand, the alienation and isolation portrayed at the play's outset are transformed into connection and "contact" on every level of the play. The play connects audiences with its world of homosexuality and AIDS. 3 notes.