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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (June 7, 1996)
jus« o u t ▼ ju n o 7 . 1 9 9 « ▼ 37 N ormal H eart A ttacks , Eleven years later Larry Kramer*s semi-autobiographical play still packs a punch ▼ I .\* •.*> . i j l»\. • : * ..V J t K a re.v\ té» in by C. Jay Wilson Jr. ■■ ... :eon O bätÄ s'anidvG ^iecology /Suite 320 Pórtlancí Aregpfi 97210 “The themes we’ve dreamed” are at the Jacob Sidney and Louis A. Lotorto (above) in Larry Kramer’s The N orm al Heart L o f Dr. Em m a B rookner (Sarah Lucht), the sermon o f celibacy is com m unicated to Ned W eeks (Louis A. Lotorto), a notoriously loud-m outhed w riter and another panic-stricken gay man. N ed accepts the call to action and w ithin a few months begins rallying gay men, the press, and Ben, his straight brother (M ichael Fisher-W elsh), a partner in a big-league law firm. By the fifth scene, Ned has m anaged to gather a core o f gay activists to raise m oney, including Felix (Jacob Sidney), his newly acquired boyfriend, whom he lobbied for press coverage at The New York Times. M ark Schwahn and Kevin Salter, in dynam ic perform ances as tw o o f the founding m em bers o f the GM HC, round out the supporting cast. The emotional intensity o f The Normal Heart is centered around Ned and his polemical raging. He conflict and a self-inflicted m artyrdom , which in labors to win his brother’s support and approval the ’90s has established him as a gay and lesbian and grapples with the perplexities that unfold in his household word. relationship with Felix; his life is complicated A rtists Repertory Theater has established what further when he finds that he is shut out o f the group it calls “T he Larry K ram er Project,” producing in that he worked so passionately to help form. Ned rotating repertory, for the first tim e in theater lives with a rage that threatens to swallow him up history, K ram er’s The Normal Heart and The completely. He tenaciously defends his solely ex Destiny o f Me. ercised political process o f aggression, refusing to First produced in 1985, K ram er’s play The buckle to a more civilized, conformist approach Normal Heart was the first m ajor play to deal adopted by the GMHC. It is this approach that Ned/ with the subject o f A IDS. H ow ever, unlike m ost Kramer recognizes as costing lives with every o f the A ID S plays that follow ed in its path, The moment o f inactivity. Kramer (in a “politics be Normal Heart is m ore o f a history play than an sieges the emotional devel AIDS dram a. It is a opm ent” scene) compares chronicle o f New York the political ineffectuality C ity ’s G a y M e n ’s o f the G M H C ’s establish- Health C risis— the ini mentarian techniques with tial organized response that o f the backdoor diplo to the AIDS epidem ic. macy of American Jews to It is a ls o L a rry end the Holocaust. K ram er’s sem i-au to The strong cast works b iographical account to g e th e r under Jo n of h is p e rs o n a l K retzu’s thoughtful direc struggles, including his tion to deliver K ram er’s eventual pariah status im p a s s io n e d m e ssa g e , within the organization which is as pertinent today he helped found. as it was over a decade W e first meet som e ago. The Normal Heart's o f the characters in the position within the evolv play in a doctor’s w ait ing genre o f gay-themed ing area. It is 198 L a n d theater is inarguably sig we quickly observe the n ific a n t, as is L a rry fear that has spread K ram er’s invaluable con through the lives o f tribution to a new era o f several gay men as they g a y -p o litic iz e d th e a te r struggle to obtain an o with an indefatigable voice explanation o f an un t o f insurgence im possible known , deadl y di sease. In the exam ining room Michael Fisher-Welsh(left) and Louis A. Lotorto to ignore. arry K ram er has been a headache to m any, an em barrassm ent to others, yet is recognized by m ost as a cho leric political leader w ho possesses the pow er to agitate change. His past efforts have been instrum ental in forcing the media, the governm ent and gay m en, them selves, to acknow ledge the threat o f A ID S. Since the publication o f his first book, Faggots, in 1978, K ram er has em broiled him self in controversy, at Rockaway Beach “ W here the Pacific O cean is open 365 days a year!" Y our hosts : Beaverton 646-3824 4000 SW 117th Corbett 244-3934 5909 SW Corbett Division 233-7374 3016 SE Division Fremont 288-3414 3449 N E 24th Hillsdale 244-3110 6344 SW Capitol Highway Marketplace at Mill Plain G eoff P faff & D anny L eines 421/423 N. Miller • PO Box 920 Rockaway Beach, OR 97136-0920 (503) 355-8610 Mention this ad for a 10% discount (360) 695-8878 8024 E. Mill Plain Vancouver, WA IF YOU ARE ILL AND MONEY HAS BECOME A CONCERN . . . 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