“Well, close the fucking curtain!”: The Ailing White Body and the Disposability of Minoritised Medical Professionals in the Theatre of HIV/AIDS

The opening and closing lines of William M. Hoffman’s AIDS play As Is are spoken by an unnamed Hospice Worker. The Broadway revival of Falsettos saw Black actor Tracey Thomas play the role of Dr Charlotte, a character who is only named in auxiliary material, rather than in the show itself. Belize, a Black medical professional is cognisant of the lack of interior life that he is afforded on stage in Angels in America, and in Matthew Lopez’s The Inheritance, the West End production saw the role of Tristan, a physician who has been living with HIV for fifteen years, played by Black actor Syrus Lowe. Each of these plays concern themselves with the ways in which AIDS ravaged the queer community. While Black bodies, along with female and disabled bodies, are placed in the role of caregiver in these productions, the ailing body itself, typically the object of audience sympathies, is a white, gay, cis male.

This presentation will explore the ways in which representations of racialised and ailing bodies, along with the physical presence of these bodies on stage, have impacted cultural understandings of the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

How have contemporary narratives of HIV/AIDS been shaped by these theatrical productions, and why have productions that have resisted these representational tropes been less documented and explored within the oeuvre of AIDS writings? This presentation seeks to offer one of many pathways towards understanding the dominant cultural and historical narrative of HIV/AIDS.

This event is free and open to all.

Ash is a second-year PhD researcher, supervised by Dr Andrew Blades and Dr Kirsty Sedgman at the University of Bristol. Their thesis explores the ways in which the theatre of HIV/AIDS has contributed towards the construction of post-AIDS-as-Epidemic narratives that centre the health of economically stable cis, white men as universal experiences. Alongside their PhD work, Ash’s research explores the historiography and mythologisation of queer narratives. They are currently working on a paper exploring references to MGM’s film version of The Wizard of Oz in AIDS writings. Ash’s pronouns are They/He. You can follow them on Twitter @ashpernpapers.

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