St. Petersburg – On the set of freeFall’s current production of The Normal Heart, Larry Kramer’s play about the very early days of the AIDS crisis in New York, there are brick walls in the background to represent apartments and offices, and a white hospital bed positioned in the middle of the floor.
It’s a reminder that while medication has come a long way to keep HIV in check in the 21st Century, there was a time when this “unidentified disease” was killing members of the gay community daily, and those in power were doing little, if anything to prevent that.
“It’s important to have awareness and be preventative about things and it’s important to remind people that there is no cure for HIV or AIDS,” says freeFall artistic director Eric Davis, who plays Ned Weeks, the lead in the production. “Those who don’t know history are doomed to repeat it. That’s the sentiment of this play.”
Even though it debuted in 1985, the message is still just as important and as powerful as it was back then. Davis, joined by fellow actor Larry Alexander and director Larry Silverberg, talked about the production just days before it opened.
The production runs through Feb. 16.
WATERMARK: Many may say that this show is dated, or no longer relevant. How do you react to that?
ERIC DAVIS: AIDS was something that was literally killing millions and was ignored by our government. I think it’s important to remind people of that.
LARRY SILVERBERG: I don’t think any person with a heart that is still beating can leave the experience of this play and not take a very hard look at their own actions, own behaviors and own attitudes. And not just toward the gay community, but their own expressions of meanness, cruelty and hatred toward any group. This play is about AIDS and the gay community. But there’s another element that has to do with the passing down of hatred from generation to generation.
LARRY ALEXANDER: We have to look back on the fact that a lot of the abandonment of these people and this cause was the prejudices against gays. Lots of people, including President Ronald Reagan, thought it was self-imposed. Insurance companies tried to not insure people because they said they did it to themselves. The gay community is still fighting. And the relevance of this is that we’re still fighting.
There is such a political statement in the subject matter of this play. How is that handled on stage?
ED: This is a very engrossing, active, powerful and exciting political thriller in many ways. There is no direct preaching to the audience. This is true to life and all that happens is fact. Of course Kramer fictionalized characters, but these are fictionalized versions of people who really existed. It’s characters living the moments of that crisis and having the political discussions, arguments, fights, battles, love scenes, all of those things that were part of that time.
LA: These characters all fight for the same thing, but they have different opinions on how to do it. That brings a lot of drama to the stage, just those differences of opinion.
ED: It’s political, but there’s a love story here too. People are still trying to live their lives, fall in love. All of that. All they knew was that there was a disease out there and didn’t know what really caused it.
LS: Larry and I were both in New York when this period of history happened. It was just people trying to live a normal life in this crisis.
Does having that personal experience help in recreating the setting of this play, which is the early 1980s?
LS: It brings a personal understanding of what this was. It’s about what we went through on a daily basis. I had a lot of gay friends who were there and died. It was a horrifying, horrifying time.
LA: It certainly adds something that I knew these people and went through this.
Many younger gays don’t know a lot about the AIDS crisis. Do you think this will appeal to that demographic?
LS: I certainly hope many young people will come. I’ve had lengthy conversations with members of the local health field. We’ve talked at great length about young people in the gay community who are doing risky sexual behavior. They think an infection just means they have to take an aspirin.
ED: Beyond AIDS epidemic talked about in the play, there’s a lot of gay history that not many people know about. Ned asks why it’s not taught in schools. Ned’s point of view is that there are things to be proud of as gay men. There is a rich cultural history of accomplishments that gay people have made to history. Most accomplishments go un-credited to gay culture because most gay people, up until recent history, have had to live completely in secret. There is more to being gay than just who you sleep with. It’s a culture that has created the beautiful art, some of the most impactful work in science, invented things we use every day regardless of if you’re gay or not. A lot of lessons to be learned here, whether you’re gay or straight. But it is empowering for young gay people.
This is some heavy subject matter. Do you think that will make it difficult to attract audiences?
ED: People will talk about serious plays like this and say it’s depressing and people die. But to me it’s not depressing. It’s empowering in so many ways. It’s inspiring and comforting because what it says, times like this, the battle is up hill but a hero will come. Because the human spirit is so strong, and in the face of all of this corruption and negativity of being human, there is also always someone or a group that comes to the rescue. It’s also a call to action to be that someone.
LD: There is a sense of the humor in the play. In the midst of these terrible crises, the funniest things can occur. Not only is it in the script, but there is a great sense of light in the humor thanks to our actors.
LA: Whenever you get four gay men in a room, there are going to be jokes.
What do you want people to come away with after seeing this play?
ED: There will be 20 things on the audience’s mind. I hope it starts conversations between people. It will definitely do that. And it’s so important for people to remember this time. Talking about it and knowing more about this time in history and having a better understanding of these characters and characters like these is important.
LA: The sad thing about this is that this is what brought the gay community together in such a strong way. Like Eric said, conversation. But there’s no difference. I have a line that says that this could happen to anybody, but it just happened to us. It would be nice if people could figure out that I’m no different than you are. I just sleep with someone else.
LS: This is called The Normal Heart for a reason. I think every day we are faced with the choice to love more or to hate more, to be kind or to be mean, to hurt someone or to make someone feel good, to add to the suffering or to do something to heal it. I hope that people leave this play wanting to make the choice to heal the suffering and not permit themselves to cause any more pain. Because there is already so much pain on this planet.
More Info:
WHAT: The Normal Heart
WHERE: FreeFall Theater, 6099 Central Ave., St. Petersburg
WHEN: Through Feb. 16
TICKETS: $29-$44 at FreeFallTheatre.com
