I have AIDS! /
Gilbert, Sky.
Toronto, Ont. : Playwrights Canada Press,
2010.
When stand-up comic Prodon Slamzeck tells his lover Vidor that he has aids, it barely interrupts their dinner. And why should it? What was once a death sentence is now no more than a chronic condition, and most gay men deal with aids with much less melodrama than they did years ago. Following him through the five stages of acceptance-- Denial, Partying, Loss of Control, Religious Conversion, and Acceptance--the play pops in and out of monologues with Prodon and into scenes with Lady Booty, an outrageous drag queen, Ron, a man who has made aids his personal religion, and the ever supportive Vidor, each giving their own advice for how to take the news. A black comedy like no other, I Have AIDS! is a play about gay men who are neither tragic or sad, and we are led to laugh with them, not at them.
When stand-up comic Prodon Slamzeck tells his lover Vidor that he has aids, it barely interrupts their dinner. And why should it? What was once a death sentence is now no more than a chronic condition, and most gay men deal with aids with much less melodrama than they did years ago. Following him through the five stages of acceptance-- Denial, Partying, Loss of Control, Religious Conversion, and Acceptance--the play pops in and out of monologues with Prodon and into scenes with Lady Booty, an outrageous drag queen, Ron, a man who has made aids his personal religion, and the ever supportive Vidor, each giving their own advice for how to take the news. A black comedy like no other, I Have AIDS! is a play about gay men who are neither tragic or sad, and we are led to laugh with them, not at them.
Sky Gilbert is an accomplished author, actor, filmmaker, and drag queen. Born in Connecticut, Gilbert studied theatre at both York University and the University of Toronto before becoming the co-founder and artistic director of Buddies in Bad Times Theatre in 1979. Gilbert left Buddies in 1997 to focus on his creative pursuits, and accepted a post as an assistant professor at Guelph University. A year after receiving his Ph.D. from the University of Toronto, Gilbert was named University Research Chair in Creative Writing and Theatre Studies at Guelph.
AIDS (Disease)