This year marks the 40th anniversary of the beginning of the AIDS epidemic. To date, 78 million people have been infected by HIV and 39 million have died from AIDS-related illnesses. To date, there have been 5.5 million deaths from COVID-19.

Across the world, government health responses to the coronavirus have been swift. Yet it took US President Reagan and many like him four years to mention publicly the actual medical term for the “gay plague”.

Writer and activist Larry Kramer’s dynamite semi-autobiographical play about the AIDS epidemic in New York broke new ground when it premiered in 1985 at the Public Theater, going on to become a multi-Tony Award-winner on Broadway and to inspire the HBO film.

Set during the first years of the crisis in 1980s New York, a determined Ned Weeks (Kramer’s fictional alter-ego) co-assembles a group along to help expose the truth about the mystery illness killing their friends, lovers and other men across the city. Ignored by politicians, the media and many of his colleagues and family, Ned’s passion and wit ignites as he tries to unite his community in the fight for their recognition and survival.

In its Adelaide premiere, The Normal Heart embraces a new generation with Artistic Director and four time Helpmann Award winner Mitchell Butel in the pivotal role of Ned.

Documenting Kramer’s years on the frontline of a health crisis that would change the world, this inspirational and edge-of-your-seat drama and surprising love story from the man described by Susan Sontag as “one of America’s most valuable troublemakers” is must-see theatre. An electrifying and heart-rending story about a pandemic many tried to ignore and the people who refused to let them do so.

A landmark play from the past that speaks very much to our present and future, featuring one of our largest ensemble casts ever. Helpmann Award-winning former Associate Director of Melbourne Theatre Company Dean Bryant brings a grand new vision for the play – you will not want to miss this. Mitchell