Review: The Normal Heart
Golden Theater, New York
July 9, 2011
For a play so driven by immediacy, The Normal Heart lingers. When Larry Kramer wrote this diatribe against the AIDS crisis spreading through New York City, he was capturing the present: a time of anger and confusion, with lawmakers and medical practitioners turning a blind eye. AIDS (never referenced by name in the play; it was too early for that) had no basis in medical history. The beautiful thing about the recent revival of Kramer's play is the compassion beneath.
Protagonist Ned Weeks (a strong, grounded performance by Joe Mantello, known more as a director), is a stand-in for Kramer--a fighter who demands attention, demands to be treated with respect. Even angrier is his doctor Emma Brookner (Ellen Barkin, holding nothing back), who alone stands up in the medical profession to speak her mind. As a fly-on-the-wall look at the fear and paranoia surrounding the epidemic, the play still voices these fears. Kramer's play is more or less a soapbox; but though didactic, he provided an education to those who only got their news from The New York Times.
Ned falls in love with a Times reporter, Felix (John Benjamin Hickey, who provides the empathy and humanity the play needs), who is soon lost to the disease along with the hundreds in New York. At a time when gay marriages just began in New York, The Normal Heart feels just as necessary as it must have in 1985. Today we have more awareness about AIDS, more understanding. The revival doesn't seek to tear down walls but strives for togetherness. This may have been the strongest ensemble of actors I've seen in a play, all ten seemingly moved by the people they are portraying, acting without ego or self-consciousness. The play asks that we do the same.
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