This year marks the 40th anniversary of the beginning of the AIDS epidemic. In 1985, Larry Kramer’s groundbreaking, semi-autobiographical play The Normal Heart about the AIDS epidemic in New York premiered Off-Broadway at the Public Theater. It was subsequently staged in Los Angeles, London and Sydney – where Wayne Harrison directed the Australian premiere for Sydney Theatre Company in 1989 – then revived Off-Broadway in 2004, before opening on Broadway in 2011, where it won three Tony Awards. It also inspired the 2014 HBO film.

Set in New York between 1981 and 1984, a determined Ned Weeks (Kramer’s fictional alter-ego) co-assembles a group along to help expose the truth about the mystery illness killing their friends, lovers and other men across the city. Ignored by politicians, the media and many of his colleagues and family, Ned’s passion and wit ignites as he tries to unite his community in the fight for their recognition and survival.

Dean Bryant directs the Adelaide premiere as part of State Theatre Company South Australia’s 2022 season with Artistic Director Mitchell Butel playing the pivotal role of Ned. In this piece for Limelight, he writes about what the play means to him.