Hugs and kisses.
April 27, 2014 9:35 AM Subscribe
In advance of the HBO release of "The Normal Heart", Frank Bruni writes about Larry Kramer in today's New York Times.
This year, a good friend of mine was in a brilliant production of The Normal Heart that, to my eternal regret, I did not see until the final weekend, which meant I couldn't make EVERYONE I KNOW go see it.
Though I had read the play before, I had only seen scenes of it performed in college acting/directing classes, and I hadn't read it for 20 years. Likewise, my partner had seen it but it had been that long.
So even though we were both familiar with the play, we had forgotten how, despite being the hero, what a pain in the ass Ned Weeks (the character based on Kramer) was. Our memory of our reaction to him as just-coming-out 19 year olds reading the play was "Hell yeah!" but our reaction 20 years later was more complex.
We realized we were in a different position of privilege and comfort than we were 20 years ago if we could see the rougher sides of Weeks/Kramer and even remotely qualify them as 'pain in the ass'; the funny part is that we are in that position of privilege and comfort BECAUSE Kramer was such a pain in the ass.
(Not to mention the fact that we may or may not even be alive if not for the work he did.)
posted by MCMikeNamara at 2:11 PM on April 27, 2014 [2 favorites]
Though I had read the play before, I had only seen scenes of it performed in college acting/directing classes, and I hadn't read it for 20 years. Likewise, my partner had seen it but it had been that long.
So even though we were both familiar with the play, we had forgotten how, despite being the hero, what a pain in the ass Ned Weeks (the character based on Kramer) was. Our memory of our reaction to him as just-coming-out 19 year olds reading the play was "Hell yeah!" but our reaction 20 years later was more complex.
We realized we were in a different position of privilege and comfort than we were 20 years ago if we could see the rougher sides of Weeks/Kramer and even remotely qualify them as 'pain in the ass'; the funny part is that we are in that position of privilege and comfort BECAUSE Kramer was such a pain in the ass.
(Not to mention the fact that we may or may not even be alive if not for the work he did.)
posted by MCMikeNamara at 2:11 PM on April 27, 2014 [2 favorites]
I expect everyone who would be interested in Kramer or The Normal Heart has already read it, but if anyone somehow missed it, Randy Shilts' brilliant book And the Band Played On is, among many other things, a superlative portrait of Larry Kramer's early-to-middle career as a firebrand.
posted by gingerest at 7:06 PM on April 27, 2014 [2 favorites]
posted by gingerest at 7:06 PM on April 27, 2014 [2 favorites]
gingerest, Randy Shilts and Paul Monette (Borrowed Time) were how I found Larry Kramer.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 7:27 PM on April 27, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 7:27 PM on April 27, 2014 [1 favorite]
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posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 12:14 PM on April 27, 2014