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The Normal Heart
THE NORMAL HEART is the explosive drama about our most terrifying and troubling medical crisis today: the AIDS epidemic. It tells the story of very private lives caught up in the heartrendering ordeal of suffering and doom - an ordeal that was largely ignored for reasons of politics and majority morality.
Filled with power, anger, and intelligence, Larry Kramer's riveting play dramatizes what actualy happened from the time of the disease's discovery to the present, and points a moral j'accuse in many directions. His passionate indictment of government, the media, and the public for refusing to deal with a national plague is electrifying theater - a play that finally breaks through the conspiracy of silence with a shout of stunning impact. As Douglas Watt summed it up in his review for the New York Daily News,THE NORMAL HEART is "an angry, unremitting and gripping piece of political theater. You are bound to come away moved."
128 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1985
34 people are currently reading
5278 people want to read
About the author
Larry Kramer
34 books207 followersLarry Kramer (born June 25, 1935) was an American playwright, author, public health advocate and gay rights activist. He was nominated for an Academy Award, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, and was twice a recipient of an Obie Award. In response to the AIDS crisis he founded Gay Men's Health Crisis, which became the largest organization of its kind in the world. He wrote The Normal Heart, the first serious artistic examination of the AIDS crisis. He later founded ACT UP, a protest organization widely credited with having changed public health policy and the public's awareness of HIV and AIDS.[1] "There is no question in my mind that Larry helped change medicine in this country. And he helped change it for the better. In American medicine there are two eras. Before Larry and after Larry," said Dr. Anthony Fauci.[1] Kramer lived in New York City and Connecticut.
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May 31, 2014
If anything, understandably soapboxy, but assuredly fucking heartbreaking.
May 23, 2014
So I've mentioned my person David before. For the past few months, David has been reminding me that HBO is making a TV version of THE NORMAL HEART, the emotional, angry, passionate play about the outbreak of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s and how it was handily ignored, devastating the gay community. I had been getting facebook posts of teasers, of articles of when it would come out, and finally, last Sunday during our weekly GAME OF THRONES date, the trailer aired. To which he and I started freaking out and clung to each other, him out of love for the original text and me out of being totally riled up from his reminders and vague knowledge of the subject matter. I decided, in an effort to steady myself for the no doubt devastating blow that this movie will commit upon me and my person, to buy the play from amazon.com so I could read it. But, big surprise, after reading it I feel no better prepared, and if anything it's probably going to make the experience that much more emotional and devastating. What a way for David and I to say goodbye before he goes to Greece for the summer and then Berkeley for grad school! No doubt crying so hard snot is running down our noses. Because that, my friends, is exactly what A NORMAL HEART did to me. Perhaps the sobbing didn't happen. But it will. God it will.
The play takes place over the course of a few years on the early 80s. It concerns Ned Weeks, a gay Jew living in New York whose friends and acquaintances have started falling ill to a mysterious and deadly new illness. It opens with him and some friends at the doctor's office of Emma, a Polio survivor who has overseen the many, many cases of this strange new disease. Ned's response is to make it political, to raise awareness, to demand that the world start noticing this insidious thing that is infecting and killing gay men with no end in sight. But society around him, politicians, the media, even his own peers, would rather remain silent with their heads buried in the sand. Ned is angry and outspoken, and he and his less outspoken friends form a group to try and raise funds and attention, while those that they know and love start to succumb, including Ned's boyfriend and lover Felix. Ned continues to hunt and persist for answers and justice, no matter how much it alienates him from those outside the movement and inside alike. And all the while, a generation is lost to AIDS, the virus that at this point didn't have a name.
This play is angry. Larry Kramer uses this story to indict the media, the government, and those who chose to remain silent on all sides. You can feel Ned's rage on the pages, his rage that is so unbridled and, frankly, justified that the reader is both put off but also in full agreement with him. He's abrasive and sanctimonious, while others, such as Bruce, are not, but fighting the same battle. I found so many things wonderful about this play. The emotion just grabs you by the throat and makes you listen, makes you think, makes you recognize that willful ignorance and bigotry and silence allowed such a terrible modern plague fester and grow until so much was lost and so much was too late. I think that the moment that had me the most was when Ned and Bruce had a penultimate battle of words, with Ned basically accusing him of not caring enough and molly coddling to those who wish to silence them, only for Bruce to reveal that his lover Albert passed away in a painful, devastating delirium that took away any dignity, relief, and lucidity from his final moments. You see both sides. You see Ned fighting so hard and being so abrasive because he's angry, but you see Bruce wanting to be more cautious because of the way that Ned has alienated himself, and in some ways the cause itself, to the outside world. Bruce has lost just as much. But their approaches are so different. And I don't even know who to say was right. Normally I find belligerent and vicious activism to be counter productive, that to reach people who won't agree with you you need to connect to them and tap into their empathy. But given the fact that the New York times ran so many articles on the Tylenol scare that killed seven people, but ran very few on the AIDS epidemic that killed hundreds, then thousands, and that politicians wouldn't address it in fear of looking too 'pro-Gay' in Reagan's and the Moral Majority's America..... I would be damn angry and belligerent too. I am damn angry.
This took a lot out of me, guys. It's a wonderful play, right up there with ANGELS IN AMERICA for one of my favorites. Don't go into this play expecting hope. Just expect bleakness and rage. And it's absolutely fantastic.
The play takes place over the course of a few years on the early 80s. It concerns Ned Weeks, a gay Jew living in New York whose friends and acquaintances have started falling ill to a mysterious and deadly new illness. It opens with him and some friends at the doctor's office of Emma, a Polio survivor who has overseen the many, many cases of this strange new disease. Ned's response is to make it political, to raise awareness, to demand that the world start noticing this insidious thing that is infecting and killing gay men with no end in sight. But society around him, politicians, the media, even his own peers, would rather remain silent with their heads buried in the sand. Ned is angry and outspoken, and he and his less outspoken friends form a group to try and raise funds and attention, while those that they know and love start to succumb, including Ned's boyfriend and lover Felix. Ned continues to hunt and persist for answers and justice, no matter how much it alienates him from those outside the movement and inside alike. And all the while, a generation is lost to AIDS, the virus that at this point didn't have a name.
This play is angry. Larry Kramer uses this story to indict the media, the government, and those who chose to remain silent on all sides. You can feel Ned's rage on the pages, his rage that is so unbridled and, frankly, justified that the reader is both put off but also in full agreement with him. He's abrasive and sanctimonious, while others, such as Bruce, are not, but fighting the same battle. I found so many things wonderful about this play. The emotion just grabs you by the throat and makes you listen, makes you think, makes you recognize that willful ignorance and bigotry and silence allowed such a terrible modern plague fester and grow until so much was lost and so much was too late. I think that the moment that had me the most was when Ned and Bruce had a penultimate battle of words, with Ned basically accusing him of not caring enough and molly coddling to those who wish to silence them, only for Bruce to reveal that his lover Albert passed away in a painful, devastating delirium that took away any dignity, relief, and lucidity from his final moments. You see both sides. You see Ned fighting so hard and being so abrasive because he's angry, but you see Bruce wanting to be more cautious because of the way that Ned has alienated himself, and in some ways the cause itself, to the outside world. Bruce has lost just as much. But their approaches are so different. And I don't even know who to say was right. Normally I find belligerent and vicious activism to be counter productive, that to reach people who won't agree with you you need to connect to them and tap into their empathy. But given the fact that the New York times ran so many articles on the Tylenol scare that killed seven people, but ran very few on the AIDS epidemic that killed hundreds, then thousands, and that politicians wouldn't address it in fear of looking too 'pro-Gay' in Reagan's and the Moral Majority's America..... I would be damn angry and belligerent too. I am damn angry.
This took a lot out of me, guys. It's a wonderful play, right up there with ANGELS IN AMERICA for one of my favorites. Don't go into this play expecting hope. Just expect bleakness and rage. And it's absolutely fantastic.
August 15, 2016
Kramer's play is brimming with anger, anguish and anxiety. For a modern reader the anger will set in a little later. For those who have lived through the 90s, will understand the anguish and anxiety having grown up seeing public service announcements about AIDS. We have come far from the days when an entire community's struggle was sidelined because who they chose to love. The struggles the men in this play undergo is real and there are many who struggle the same way to this very day.
This play is set in 80s when AIDS was on the rise and no one knew what was going on. The medical community ignored the epidemic that would soon to become a feared disease. When the play opens, there is an undercurrent of fear running in the community where many of them are dying. There is a sudden bursts of patients who would be there one day and gone within next few weeks. There aren't enough doctors who are interested in diagnosing the symptoms and the one who is researching isn't getting enough funds.
The men are angry, frustrated, scared and disappointed with their government when their fight goes unheard for months. They have careers, they have families, they are brilliant, they are smart, they are beautiful and they fight with everything they have got for their very existence and their representation. One of the protagonists Ned says,
He is not wrong. It took the world several years to figure out contributions of Alan Turing and how his life ended. His sexuality became more important than what he did during the war. It wasn't enough. Kramer doesn't linger on death and disappointments; instead he extrapolates on reflecting history, moral commandments and moral obligations, human decency and willingness to look past personal bias. When a human failure is recognized and is fought for, it is almost always late. Only when there is a direct economical or political impact or when the world give a sidelong questioning glance does the reaction comes.
You get the play as is. There are no metaphors. There are no allegories. There are no subtle references to something else. What you see is what you get. The play is honest, loud, clunky, to the point and brutal. Don't ignore the anger.
This play is set in 80s when AIDS was on the rise and no one knew what was going on. The medical community ignored the epidemic that would soon to become a feared disease. When the play opens, there is an undercurrent of fear running in the community where many of them are dying. There is a sudden bursts of patients who would be there one day and gone within next few weeks. There aren't enough doctors who are interested in diagnosing the symptoms and the one who is researching isn't getting enough funds.
The men are angry, frustrated, scared and disappointed with their government when their fight goes unheard for months. They have careers, they have families, they are brilliant, they are smart, they are beautiful and they fight with everything they have got for their very existence and their representation. One of the protagonists Ned says,
"All through history we've been there; but we to claim it, and identify who was in it, and articulate what's in our minds and hearts and all our creative contributions to this earth. And until we don that, and until we organize ourselves block by neighborhood by city by state into a united visible community that fights back, we're doomed."
He is not wrong. It took the world several years to figure out contributions of Alan Turing and how his life ended. His sexuality became more important than what he did during the war. It wasn't enough. Kramer doesn't linger on death and disappointments; instead he extrapolates on reflecting history, moral commandments and moral obligations, human decency and willingness to look past personal bias. When a human failure is recognized and is fought for, it is almost always late. Only when there is a direct economical or political impact or when the world give a sidelong questioning glance does the reaction comes.
You get the play as is. There are no metaphors. There are no allegories. There are no subtle references to something else. What you see is what you get. The play is honest, loud, clunky, to the point and brutal. Don't ignore the anger.
February 5, 2016
I'd seen the film (everyone watch it, please do), so I thought I entered into reading this with some idea, but there isn't really any such thing as "some idea." I went into reading this the same way I went into reading Dancer from the Dance - in high summer, a little intoxicated, a little heart-broken, a little angry; conditions, it turns out, that augment every facet of stories like these; conditions that lend more oppression to the heat, more clarity than one might comfortably welcome to the intoxication; conditions that make you more devastated and more uselessly angry, at recent history, at the fact that we live in a world where this started, not 40 years ago, where a society could turn their back and let one of its communities face this threat screaming and scared and angry and alone.
Like one of my fellow reviewers said, The Normal Heart should be required reading.
Like one of my fellow reviewers said, The Normal Heart should be required reading.
February 14, 2022
“I’m afraid to be with him; I’m afraid to be without him; I’m afraid the cure won’t come in time; I’m afraid of my anger; I’m a terrible leader and a useless lover…”
This is a magnificent, harrowing, angry play. Probably the angriest play I have ever read. I’ll need some time to fully process the book and this is not a perfect comparison, but I have been angry a lot during the last two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, so Ned’s and Emma’s outbursts resonate very deeply for me. And I desperately need to see this on stage now.
This is a magnificent, harrowing, angry play. Probably the angriest play I have ever read. I’ll need some time to fully process the book and this is not a perfect comparison, but I have been angry a lot during the last two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, so Ned’s and Emma’s outbursts resonate very deeply for me. And I desperately need to see this on stage now.
July 7, 2020
Rep: Jewish gay mc, wheelchair using character, gay cast
June 2, 2020
2nd go round: I reread The Normal Heart in honour of Larry Kramer, who left us last week. Of course, he never really did or will leave us since he gave us this absolutely incredible call to arms: this blistering, unforgiving, unscrupulous, take no prisoners, fireball of a play with an enormous, gorgeous, still-beating heart at its center. The Normal Heart must be one of the most emotionally affecting, stirring, magnificent works of art I've ever accessed, even in revisits. Its life and vitality jumps off the page and straight into your heart. Reading it this time, I could not shake the memory of the staged reading I directed and acted in - almost three years ago; and marveled at how wonderful performances can sometimes stay with you. Larry has captured such an important moment in our history: but it still remains so relevant and important; it is certainly not a work 'of its time' and meant to be forgotten - it's as fresh as ever, which is such a stunning accomplishment in and of itself. Ned is such a furious man, and I am so touched by how Kramer has written so generously and honestly about his own experiences: he is unsparing to even himself. He does not try to make his stand in look good - he doesn't care about things like that - he cares about the truth, and he cares that people hear it, that people to it and enact it. That they act. He is a man whose anger, whose fight, whose words, and art is something I can only hope to have a fraction of in my lifetime. Thank you, Larry. Thank you.
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First book of 2016! Emotionally powerful and such an intense read. Beautiful story of a time in our history that must never be forgotten.
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First book of 2016! Emotionally powerful and such an intense read. Beautiful story of a time in our history that must never be forgotten.
July 18, 2024
I saw this on Broadway in 2011. I had to go twice because I was so overwhelmed and so scared of seeing myself on that stage that I left at intermission. When I went back I managed to make it to the end and sobbed. We have been so let down as a community and we still have a long way to go. Please vote. If you care about the LGBTQ+ community in any way, please vote.
August 12, 2017
hah waaaaaaait I'm sad.
I get that the ongoing stalemate is an integral part of the plot//point being made but it did feel a bit stagnant on the overall.
But this is me demanding development from a screen play. so.
@mattbomer @markruffalo I'm significantly less ready than estar and feeling quite vulnerable atm but here we go (!)
I get that the ongoing stalemate is an integral part of the plot//point being made but it did feel a bit stagnant on the overall.
But this is me demanding development from a screen play. so.
@mattbomer @markruffalo I'm significantly less ready than estar and feeling quite vulnerable atm but here we go (!)
May 5, 2015
Actual rating is both...
3.75 Stars (mostly due to the unremarkable writing)
and 5 stars (for the incredible, heartbreaking tragedy that can't even be described as a "story," for it effected too many lives, brings rage to my heart some thirty years later, and tore apart a man who was simply trying to be the voice of a denied people)
Thus, to be fair, it's gets a rounded 4 stars so we're even.
Review:
Now, I want to say something about this understandably powerful play - I think... seeing it would have been more beneficial and successful an endeavor than simply reading it. Watching the actors put on the performance of a lifetime and searing into your eyes, your mind, your... very soul the profound impact of a government turning its back on its own people, simply because of their sexuality or social-economic backgrounds. Realizing that had they done something sooner, helped - people sooner... much of the tragedy of AIDS would not have spread so quickly or so staggeringly throughout the U.S.; a country supposedly in the height of First World privilege.
I was über curious about this play from the moment I heard Mark Ruffalo would be making a movie from a play of the same name. I can't say I ever heard about it prior to that (which - I know - is a tragedy all in itself) but I'm thankful to have been able to read this and have the events through this play now part of my life.
I try not to read books about the HIV-AIDS epidemic (or the horrors of black slavery, or the Holocaust, or native american "relocation"), not because I want to close my eyes to the situation, but because I am too acutely aware of exactly what is going on. Sometimes, to have to relive it again and again in books sometimes more appalling than one might expect, is just too much.
This play has that sort of effect on you. You read it, and suddenly you are there in 1981, and you live through that four year period of utter hell. You see a government... a free, representative democracy, a "by the people, for the people" government... literally fuck everyone over by ignoring the cries of their gay citizens, by refusing to be involved with the gay cancer, by default... aiding in the spread of the disease. The overall writing might have been mediocre, but - let me tell you - the message was loud and clear.
My heart goes out to Ned, who feels like he hasn't done enough; to Dr. Brookner who's righteous anger mirrors my own so clearly; to all the men, women, and others of varying genders who suffered because their voices weren't heard. We hear you. Even if it took thirty years - gods... we hear you.
3.75 Stars (mostly due to the unremarkable writing)
and 5 stars (for the incredible, heartbreaking tragedy that can't even be described as a "story," for it effected too many lives, brings rage to my heart some thirty years later, and tore apart a man who was simply trying to be the voice of a denied people)
Thus, to be fair, it's gets a rounded 4 stars so we're even.
Review:
Now, I want to say something about this understandably powerful play - I think... seeing it would have been more beneficial and successful an endeavor than simply reading it. Watching the actors put on the performance of a lifetime and searing into your eyes, your mind, your... very soul the profound impact of a government turning its back on its own people, simply because of their sexuality or social-economic backgrounds. Realizing that had they done something sooner, helped - people sooner... much of the tragedy of AIDS would not have spread so quickly or so staggeringly throughout the U.S.; a country supposedly in the height of First World privilege.
I was über curious about this play from the moment I heard Mark Ruffalo would be making a movie from a play of the same name. I can't say I ever heard about it prior to that (which - I know - is a tragedy all in itself) but I'm thankful to have been able to read this and have the events through this play now part of my life.
I try not to read books about the HIV-AIDS epidemic (or the horrors of black slavery, or the Holocaust, or native american "relocation"), not because I want to close my eyes to the situation, but because I am too acutely aware of exactly what is going on. Sometimes, to have to relive it again and again in books sometimes more appalling than one might expect, is just too much.
This play has that sort of effect on you. You read it, and suddenly you are there in 1981, and you live through that four year period of utter hell. You see a government... a free, representative democracy, a "by the people, for the people" government... literally fuck everyone over by ignoring the cries of their gay citizens, by refusing to be involved with the gay cancer, by default... aiding in the spread of the disease. The overall writing might have been mediocre, but - let me tell you - the message was loud and clear.
My heart goes out to Ned, who feels like he hasn't done enough; to Dr. Brookner who's righteous anger mirrors my own so clearly; to all the men, women, and others of varying genders who suffered because their voices weren't heard. We hear you. Even if it took thirty years - gods... we hear you.
July 15, 2017
"I belong to a culture that includes Proust, Henry James, Tchaikovsky, Cole Porter, Plato, Socrates, Aristotle, Alexander the Great, Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Christopher Marlowe, Walt Whitman, Herman Melville, Tennessee Williams, Byron, E.M. Forster, Lorca, Auden, Francis Bacon, James Baldwin, Harry Stack Sullivan, John Maynard Keynes, Dag Hammarskjold… These are not invisible men. Poor Bruce. Poor frightened Bruce. Once upon a time you wanted to be a soldier.
Bruce, did you know that an openly gay Englishman was as responsible as any man for winning the Second World War? His name was Alan Turing and he cracked the Germans' Enigma code so the Allies knew in advance what the Nazis were going to do — and when the war was over he committed suicide he was so hounded for being gay. Why don't they teach any of this in the schools? If they did, maybe he wouldn't have killed himself and maybe you wouldn't be so terrified of who you are. The only way we'll have real pride is when we demand recognition of a culture that isn't just sexual. It's all there—all through history we've been there; but we have to claim it, and identify who was in it, and articulate what's in our minds and hearts and all our creative contributions to this earth. And until we do that, and until we organize ourselves block by neighborhood by city by state into a united visible community that fights back, we're doomed. That's how I want to be defined: as one of the men who fought the war."
4.5 stars.
sometimes over-dramatic and soap-boxy but so essential. i appreciated that Kramer discussed the opposing views within the LGBT community itself regarding how to handle the crisis and i found myself sympathizing with both Ned and Bruce, understanding their choices and their flaws. every page is laced with anger and anguish and frustration, a testament to the incredible lives and the horribly unfair deaths of those with AIDS.
June 3, 2020
In light of Larry Kramers death I felt I couldnt put off reading this play any longer. I have read his novel "Faggots" and have had "Thr Normal Heart" on my to read list ever since.
The play is not easy to stomach just as his novel wasnt. Kramer is not a writer that sugar coats or plays it safe in his works
This play is angry, and rightfully so. It confronts the early years of the AIDS epidemic as seen through the protagonists Ned Weeks, who is based on Kramer himself. It shows us a time when the country was ignoring the gay communities deaths, and everyone struggled to figure just how to combat this.
The play starts out slower and continues to build and build and I could feel my anger and sorrow and sadness building with each scene. Each monologue or exchange between characters getting more important and more heated with each scene. Its powerful how it's written and would be powerful on the stage when performed.
What I loved the most though was the juxtaposition of Weeks finding love for the first time in the midst of all going on. This element of Ned and Felix finding each other and falling in love adds this secondary light nature to the darkness of the play. It humanizes an already deeply human play.
Kramer is such an important member of the gay rights movement and this play shows why. He was angry and loud in a time when everyone wanted him to be silent and kind. He showed us that speaking up and speaking out have a place and can gain results.
He is immortal through his writing and his activism. This play is powerful, and I hope it will live on as much as his memory will.
The play is not easy to stomach just as his novel wasnt. Kramer is not a writer that sugar coats or plays it safe in his works
This play is angry, and rightfully so. It confronts the early years of the AIDS epidemic as seen through the protagonists Ned Weeks, who is based on Kramer himself. It shows us a time when the country was ignoring the gay communities deaths, and everyone struggled to figure just how to combat this.
The play starts out slower and continues to build and build and I could feel my anger and sorrow and sadness building with each scene. Each monologue or exchange between characters getting more important and more heated with each scene. Its powerful how it's written and would be powerful on the stage when performed.
What I loved the most though was the juxtaposition of Weeks finding love for the first time in the midst of all going on. This element of Ned and Felix finding each other and falling in love adds this secondary light nature to the darkness of the play. It humanizes an already deeply human play.
Kramer is such an important member of the gay rights movement and this play shows why. He was angry and loud in a time when everyone wanted him to be silent and kind. He showed us that speaking up and speaking out have a place and can gain results.
He is immortal through his writing and his activism. This play is powerful, and I hope it will live on as much as his memory will.
August 26, 2011
I enjoyed this a lot. I can see how it would have seemed very polemic when it first came out but now, with time, I that fades and the emotion moves to the forefront.
August 2, 2017
I think I'm gonna start reading more plays :)
ready for you @markruffalo & @mattbomer
ready for you @markruffalo & @mattbomer
July 9, 2018
i liked this SIGNIFICANTLY more than the movie adaptation. it broke my heart and brought up extremely valid points
October 5, 2021
crying again
March 29, 2022
seething
November 18, 2022
I sobbed reading it and I sobbed reading the afterwords. Everyone should read this play.
June 23, 2025
Questo testo assume un'importanza capitale, credo, nella storia della letteratura gay: racconta della disperazione crescente nella quale, in quegli anni (dall'81 all''84 - The Normal Heart fu scritto nell''85), sono state prese le persone omosessuali (in realtà, non solo, non facendo distinzione, l'HIV, rispetto all'orientamento sessuale) e l'iniziale indifferenza per il contagio assunta da chi avrebbe avuto il potere di agire tempestivamente per affrontarlo, e non lo fece, contribuendo di fatto alla morte di centinaia di migliaia di persone.
È palpabile la commovente disperazione (e la rabbia; la rabbia degli impotenti di fronte alla morte di amici, conoscenti e persone innocenti) di Ned, protagonista di questo dramma, che, insieme alla dottoressa Brookner, tra le prime a occuparsi dei malati di AIDS - ma allora aveva altri (deprecabili e falsi) nomi, come "gay cancer", "slim disease" o, in Italia, "peste gay" -, tenta di tutto pur di farsi ascoltare da chi può agire nei confronti di questo stillicidio - che causerà milioni e milioni di morti (35 ne sono stati stimati fino alla comparsa dei primi trattamenti efficaci nella seconda metà degli anni Novanta) - e dalla comunità alla quale appartiene (quella gay): è dunque insofferente nei confronti dell'indifferenza alla quale sopra facevo cenno; è adirato perché la sua voce sembra perdersi nelle lacrime di chi si trova ai capezzali dei letti di queste centinaia di persone che non sanno di cosa stanno morendo; la sua stessa comunità sembra essere sorda agli avvisi, alle cautele che vengono suggerite: i gay - per parte loro - non accettano di essere più avveduti rispetto alla loro sessualità - alla loro promiscuità - e non possono dunque accettare che venga loro detto, per dirla con le parole di Bruce, «come vivere la loro vita! Non è possibile. E inoltre l'intera piattaforma politica gay si basa sullo scopare. Ci ritroveremmo a essere attaccati da tutte le parti». E così ogni azione è ritardata, rallentata, procrastinata, si prende tempo, rubandolo a coloro ai quali è proprio il tempo a mancare...
Insomma, questo testo è una fotografia toccante di quei terribili anni, e, per meglio comprenderne il valore, si dovrebbe considerare, a mio avviso, di indossare le lenti di allora, pur leggendolo oggi. Mi sembra lo si debba a quelle donne e a quegli uomini che abbiamo perduto così tragicamente.
Forse non c'è miglior modo di chiudere con le parole che Larry Kramer ha posto in esergo per introdurre questo dramma:
"Agli uomini e alle donne gay di tutto il mondo che amo tanto.
The Normal Heart è la nostra Storia.
Non si sarebbe potuto scrivere senza l'inutile morte di tanti di noi.
Imparate e continuate nella lotta.
Fate loro sapere che noi siamo persone molto speciali, persone eccezionali.
E che il nostro giorno verrà."
È palpabile la commovente disperazione (e la rabbia; la rabbia degli impotenti di fronte alla morte di amici, conoscenti e persone innocenti) di Ned, protagonista di questo dramma, che, insieme alla dottoressa Brookner, tra le prime a occuparsi dei malati di AIDS - ma allora aveva altri (deprecabili e falsi) nomi, come "gay cancer", "slim disease" o, in Italia, "peste gay" -, tenta di tutto pur di farsi ascoltare da chi può agire nei confronti di questo stillicidio - che causerà milioni e milioni di morti (35 ne sono stati stimati fino alla comparsa dei primi trattamenti efficaci nella seconda metà degli anni Novanta) - e dalla comunità alla quale appartiene (quella gay): è dunque insofferente nei confronti dell'indifferenza alla quale sopra facevo cenno; è adirato perché la sua voce sembra perdersi nelle lacrime di chi si trova ai capezzali dei letti di queste centinaia di persone che non sanno di cosa stanno morendo; la sua stessa comunità sembra essere sorda agli avvisi, alle cautele che vengono suggerite: i gay - per parte loro - non accettano di essere più avveduti rispetto alla loro sessualità - alla loro promiscuità - e non possono dunque accettare che venga loro detto, per dirla con le parole di Bruce, «come vivere la loro vita! Non è possibile. E inoltre l'intera piattaforma politica gay si basa sullo scopare. Ci ritroveremmo a essere attaccati da tutte le parti». E così ogni azione è ritardata, rallentata, procrastinata, si prende tempo, rubandolo a coloro ai quali è proprio il tempo a mancare...
Insomma, questo testo è una fotografia toccante di quei terribili anni, e, per meglio comprenderne il valore, si dovrebbe considerare, a mio avviso, di indossare le lenti di allora, pur leggendolo oggi. Mi sembra lo si debba a quelle donne e a quegli uomini che abbiamo perduto così tragicamente.
Forse non c'è miglior modo di chiudere con le parole che Larry Kramer ha posto in esergo per introdurre questo dramma:
"Agli uomini e alle donne gay di tutto il mondo che amo tanto.
The Normal Heart è la nostra Storia.
Non si sarebbe potuto scrivere senza l'inutile morte di tanti di noi.
Imparate e continuate nella lotta.
Fate loro sapere che noi siamo persone molto speciali, persone eccezionali.
E che il nostro giorno verrà."
October 31, 2018
“ It's all there—all through history we've been there; but we have to claim it, and identify who was in it, and articulate what's in our minds and hearts and all our creative contributions to this earth. And until we do that, and until we organize ourselves block by neighborhood by city by state into a united visible community that fights back, we're doomed. That's how I want to be defined: as one of the men who fought the war.”
The Normal Heart is political theatre at its absolute best. Not only does it document the AIDS crisis, but it was published and performed while the crisis was still very much happening, and it absolutely cannot be divorced from this context. It is not only a play- it is an angry and unapologetic call to action, an Emile Zola-esque “J’accuse”. It is exactly the theatre we need to be reading, writing, and producing right now.
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June 16, 2024Literature you can’t rate since it’s the historical record. Being in the eye of this storm is harrowing; the type of ambivalence the reader has to contend with is probly unmatched in drama. Gay identity and culture are being negotiated through—and dictated by—a plague without known scope, origin, or method of transmission, and the main character is as right about the crisis as he is insupportable in organizing against it. Politics are amoral; innocence is complicity.
Amazing Auden quote at the beginning.
Amazing Auden quote at the beginning.
October 22, 2017
Angels in America was better, but still a powerful play on the AIDS epidemic.
April 13, 2025
an angry play written by an angry man during an infuriating time
March 16, 2017
Heartbreakingly beautiful. Incredibly sad!
I don't even know what to say beside that. Kramer managed to get me invested in these characters in a mere 93 pages and feel their pain as if it were my own. It shed light on some very dark times, times and struggles many people would like to pretend didn't-and still aren't-happening all around the world.
I don't even know what to say beside that. Kramer managed to get me invested in these characters in a mere 93 pages and feel their pain as if it were my own. It shed light on some very dark times, times and struggles many people would like to pretend didn't-and still aren't-happening all around the world.
July 25, 2025
Picked this up because I was in a staged reading of the play. One of those works where you find yourself both deeply sympathizing and agreeing with the protagonist and at the same time being really, really frustrated with them. But, at least for me, there wasn't a moment that I didn't share the rage.
February 17, 2017
I really enjoyed this play. It had some touching scenes and some wonderfully and unexpectedly funny moments. It was preachy at times, but in a good way. It does a very good job capturing in two hours of dialog what Randy Shilts did in 650 pages in And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic. On its loudest level, this play is a scream for justice. But I kept coming back to the title - The Normal Heart. In between the passion, grief and frustration of the characters' lines, this play has something profound to say about loving and about being human.
January 24, 2016
Devastating, heartbreaking, brutal, true, educational, witty, warm, sharp, angry - I so felt with Ned and his urge to yell at everyone responsible non-responding and just to yell in general into the face of the insanity of it all. Can´t even begin to imagine what it must have been like to live in this crazy, scary, unreal deadly time and weirdly closed-off bubble, left alone in this fight and not knowing what could come next and who to lose next. This should be required reading. Since it´s a play, I´d like to see it on a stage, but it held up well in book form. The movie will probably kill me.
March 31, 2011
I nearly bawled reading this last night.
May 20, 2021
While it can be a little didactic, I don't think I've ever read anything that made such a concise argument for angry, loud public protest like this does. Ned and Felix forever.
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