About the work
Largely autobiographical play by Larry Kramer, first performed on 21 April 1985 at the Public Theater in New York, directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg, a New York Shakespeare Festival production under Joseph Papp.
Plot
In the early 1980s, the writer and activist Ned Weeks founds an organization in New York to raise awareness of the spreading AIDS epidemic. As his love for the journalist Felix Turner is undone by Felix's illness, Weeks increasingly clashes with his own organization, which he sees as too timid toward authorities and the public – a conflict that ends with his expulsion.
Cultural significance
Kramer drew on his own experience as a co-founder of the Gay Men's Health Crisis in 1981 and his break with the organization in 1983. The play ran for 294 off-Broadway performances and is regarded as one of the most influential plays about the early AIDS crisis; a 2011 Broadway revival won three Tony Awards, including Best Revival of a Play.