Just a little bit late… Here’s 10 of my favourite shows, both online and onstage but fully acknowledging that I saw a lot less than usual, I might actually have broken the back of this theatre obsession – it just took a global pandemic to do it…!
‘Raw history not yet ready to be consigned to the past’: THE NORMAL HEART – National Theatre
First staged in 1985, just before the AIDS epidemic had fully entered public consciousness, Larry Kramer’s The Normal Heart rails against the refusal of US authorities to acknowledge anything was wrong.
‘Heartbreaking but fiercely essential work’: THE NORMAL HEART – National Theatre
Larry Kramer’s The Normal Heart receives a masterful revival courtesy of Dominic Cooke at the National Theatre, starring Ben Daniels.
‘A gripping & affecting piece’: THE NORMAL HEART – National Theatre ★★★★★
The Normal Heart is a play of fights. Set in the early 1980s in New York, gay men are dying, but gay activist Ned Weeks is struggling to get anyone to do anything.
‘This incredible play’: THE NORMAL HEART – National Theatre
Creating socio-political change and even recognition doesn’t just happen, somewhere, sometime, someone has to fight for it, and history is full of organisations who since the end of absolute monarchies (and arguably even before) have tried to make their voices heard.
NEWS: National Theatre announces further casting for The Normal Heart, Hex, East Is East & Manor
The National Theatre, returning to performances with full capacity audiences from later this month, has announced further casting details for forthcoming productions of Larry Kramer’s The Normal Heart, original musical Hex, Moira Buffini’s new play Manor, and more.
NEWS: National Theatre will stage The Normal Heart starring Ben Daniels as part of Olivier in-the-round season
The National Theatre has announced that a production of Larry Kramer’s The Normal Heart, directed by Dominic Cooke, will be presented as part of the Olivier in-the-round season in February 2021 in a co-production with Fictionhouse.
‘A rare treat’: The New Group’s benefit reading of Larry Kramer’s The Destiny of Me
This reading of The Destiny of Me was a rare (especially for a Brit) opportunity to see this rarely performed play. The fact Kramer has done re-writes gives me hope there will be a production somewhere, sometime in the future.
THE NORMAL HEART – Havant
Long before it became a mainstream subject Larry Kramer’s visceral, semi-autobiographical account of life within the New York gay community’s burgeoning activist organisations shed a light on the plight of Aids affecting so many.