The Normal Heart: some solid performances in this sometimes rocky production

The Normal Heart by Larry Kramer, Toto Too theatre, directed by Jim McNabb and Shaun  Toohey.

A friend smiled as he recalled the late 1970s as a wonderful time of emotional and sexual freedom. We had met for lunch after his weekly doctor’s appointment. He reported that he had lost a little weight and that one or two more dark marks had shown up on his body. But he was fine, he said. The year was 1990. Less than three months later, he was dead, another victim of the AIDS crisis.

By this time, the scourge of acquired immune deficiency syndrome had been recognized as an epidemic. The black, purple, brown or red marks of Kaposi’s sarcoma were understood to be signs of the dangerous progression of the killing disease.

When Larry Kramer wrote his angry autobiographical play The Normal Heart, first presented off Broadway in 1985, he was continuing his fight to make people understand and respond to the ever-increasing death toll. Yet, because AIDS in 1981 (when HIV/AIDS was officially recognized as an epidemic) and earlier primarily affected gay men, it was extremely difficult to raise political or personal awareness of the depth of the problem. And, in The Normal Heart, Kramer gives no quarter to the members of the gay community, who were too timid to fight or too hung up on sexual liberation to recognize that abstinence might stem the spread of the disease.

As Kramer’s alter ego, Ned Weeks takes on all-comers from the president of the AIDS advocacy group that they co-founded to the mayor of New York City. The polemic is delivered “to undo the folded lie” and underline that “no one exists alone.”

As Ned in the TotoToo production, Shaun Toohey (also listed as co-director) is the focal point of The Normal Heart. He rages at the plague, the authorities for their inaction and his compatriots in the gay advocacy group for their timidity. He is clear in his connection with his lover, Felix, and his brother, Ben. (Toohey is also present as a coach when other cast members falter.) Despite occasional line issues, Barry Daley, as Felix, delivers an effective balance to Ned’s uncertainty, beginning playfully and gliding into taking their love seriously.

Luc Cormier, as Tommy, is directed into being a little too mannered in the early stages, though his more muted rendering in Act II is quite effective and sympathetic. Meanwhile, the awkward movements of Michael Tower as Mickey Marcus make him appear very ill at ease in his final long speech and uncomfortable in his demonstration of breaking down. Sean Brennan, as former Green Beret and gay advocacy group president Bruce Niles, delivers the appropriate restrained contrast to Ned’s firebrand confrontational style. David Whiteman as Hiram Keebler and Ethan Pitcher as Grady perform as required, given the unenviable tasks of presenting characters that are written as foils only.

The strength of Toohey’s characterization and solid performances from Jon Payne as Ben and Lorilee Holloway as Dr. Emma Brookner, the medical specialist who first raised the alarm about the mysterious killer disease in New York, are the grounding forces of the show. However, this sometimes rocky production, as directed by Jim McNabb, periodically loses its rhythm.

Although The Normal Heart does not quite reach the high standard of previous TotoToo shows, it still makes its mark as a good production with a strong message.

The Normal Heart continues at the Gladstone to March 10.

Directors: Jim McNabb and Shaun Toohey

Set and lighting: David Magladry

Sound: David Ing

Costumes: Peggy Laverty

 

Cast

Bruce Niles…………………………………………..Sean Brennan

Tommy Boatwright…………………………………..Luc Cormier

Felix Turner………………………………………….Barry Daley

Dr. Emma Brookner………………………………….Lorilee Holloway

Ben Weeks……………………………………………Jon Payne

Grady………………………………………………….Ethan Pitcher

Ned Weeks……………………………………………Shaun Toohey

Mickey Marcus………………………………………..Michael Tower

Hiram Keebler…………………………………………David Whiteman