Viewed one way, Hoffman’s play is not a play about AIDS and its repercussions; it is a play about ignorance, discrimination and fear. Viewed that way, it is still a play of enormous power and relevance. Indeed, viewed as an AIDS play it is still an important piece – the research today suggests that levels of misapprehension and misunderstanding about AIDS are almost as high now as they were in the 80’s.
Thirty years on from its first season in New York, where critics hailed it for its powerful message, As Is uses humour and sensitivity the apathy and ignorance that surrounded AIDS in the 1980’s, an apathy that continues as more people than ever are contracting HIV in the present day. The play by William H Hoffman won the Obie and Drama Desk Awards and was nominated as one of Time Magazine’s Best Plays Of The Year. The cast of As Is featured Steven Webb (House of Boys, The Inbetweeners) and David Polynor (The Tempest, Peter Pan) who last performed together in The History Boys at the National Theatre in 2006/7. They are joined by Dino Fetscher (Banana and Cucumber on C4/E4), Jane Lowe (Bad Girls, Spooks), Giles Cooper (Pride), Natalie Burt (Blandings), Russell Morton (Molly Wobbly’s Tit Factory, Piaf) and Bevan Celestine ( I Wish To Die Singing, Empires). As … Read more
