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2006
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Dirk Visser, « Plagued for Their Offence: AIDS & Theatrical Representation », Interfaces. Image-Texte-Langage (documents), ID : 10.3406/inter.2006.1320
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The topic of this article is representation of AIDS in a number of British and American plays from the 1980s, the early days of the epidemic. After discussing two excerpts from the British tabloid press, establishing that reporting on the disease is not phrased in medical but in moral terms, the article continues to analyze various theatrical responses to the moral discourse surrounding AIDS, ranging from the careful didactic maneuvers of the «Gay Sweatshop» theatre company to the shock tactics employed by playwright Robert Chesley. Taking as its starting point two symbols which were of major importance in shaping the discourse of gay liberation and AIDS-the pink triangle and the KS lesion-the article concludes with an analysis of a recently revived early AlDS-play : Larry Kramer’s The Normal Heart (1985).