Meet the Cast of The Normal Heart
In 2022, State Theatre Company South Australia presents our production of Larry Kramer’s groundbreaking, multi-Tony Award-winning play, The Normal Heart.
We caught up with some of the cast about the importance of this play in the landscape of modern theatre and for LGBTQI+ communities.
Meet Emma Jones
What does this role mean to you?
The role of Dr Emma Brookner is the kind of role any actor would want to play. She is driven by passion, conviction, a furious belief in what is right and is so unafraid to speak her mind it almost feels dangerous. And she is! A classic disrupter, a healer and a woman who won’t be told that she is wrong when the evidence proves she is right. Dr Brookner and I share a lot more than the same first name – we share a lot of the same beliefs, have had similar life experiences and both carry a belly-fire for many of the issues central to the play. So to portray her in all her visceral glory is a dream! This character is based on a true hero – Dr Linda Laubenstein. I want to do both these women the justice they deserve.
How do you identify with your character? Have you faced any obstacles in your own life similar to those of your character?
As a middle-aged woman who has lived decades with a visible, physical disability due to a childhood disease (in my case, bone cancer in my left knee resulting in amputation) I not only physically resonate with Dr Brookner, but also share the steadfastness that becomes a necessity when the world tries to tell you who you are, who you should be and sadly, often that you are not taken as seriously because you are different. The role is an absolute gift – a gift not only for female actors but especially for disabled female actors because many of us have spent long, hungry years screaming into the void, asking to be heard and seen. It would be an honour to speak her words and to do my part to continue to fill that void with our bodies and our experiences.
Meet Ainsley Melham
What does this role mean to you?
Because this play is largely autobiographical, I can’t help but wonder how much of this character draws on the memory of a real person. Of course Kramer would have taken some artistic license when crafting his characters, but at their core they are very much real people who walked this earth before us, and it is extremely humbling to get the chance to explore their experiences on stage — especially as a young gay man living in 2022.
How do you identify with your character? Have you faced any obstacles in your own life similar to those of your character?
If you were a gay man living through the AIDS epidemic, and you had not contracted the virus yourself, you were, no doubt, watching your friends fight for their lives all around you. In 2016, at the age of 24, I lost my closest friend to a terminal illness. She was only a few years older than I. While my loss might not compare in scale, I feel it provides me a small affinity and some common ground with the character.
Meet AJ Pate
The Normal Heart is very much about the power of community – what’s a time where you personally experienced/witnessed the power of community?
Personally, I usually don’t feel included in the gay community. The gay community is very exclusive, which probably comes from the decades of discrimination that has occurred over many generations. I mean, how can you expect a community to be considered inclusive when the community itself isn’t included in society? I could take it personally, but I also understand that I might just have to wait my turn for the development of the gay community to accept a person that looks like me. There’s a lot of conditions for being accepted amongst the gays unless you’re a tall, muscle-y white man. What I sometimes forget is that outside of our community, the “more favourable” gay demographics still face some oppression I do. I sincerely hope one day we can destigmatise the marginalisation within the gay community altogether and learn to find a common ground celebrating our differences. This production of The Normal Heart has so much potential in showcasing the power of community, and how it can include everyone. The play itself shows how impactful community can be when it is present, while simultaneously showing how destructive it is when the community is divided. I’m very fortunate we can accomplish this with such a diverse cast.
Meet Evan Lever
What does this role mean to you?
As a gay actor I have never had the opportunity to play a gay character before. I grew up fearing my homosexuality and learned to hide it by performing ‘straightness’ and conforming a very narrow idea of what it means to be a man, so I wouldn’t expose myself. It becomes a skill and was a way of protecting myself from judgment or ridicule. Whenever I approach playing a straight character I have to access this skill again as well as the fear that people will see through it and perceive me as gay. To play a gay character like Mikey is so freeing because I can commit all of myself to the work without a fear of judgment.
How do you identify with your character? Have you faced any obstacles in your own life similar to those of your character?
I really enjoy Mickey’s sense of humour and the affection he holds for his friends. Personally I identify with his the struggle for self acceptance, and the hopelessness we can feel in the face of the unknown.
Meet Matt Hyde
How do you identify with your character? Have you faced any obstacles in your own life similar to those of your character?
Bruce has the courage to go into battle, to kill and stare death in the face in a war zone yet is absolutely terrified of looking within and accepting who he is as an individual. This extreme sense of denial and fear of rejection by society is something I can identify with as can most queer people. Knowing that you are fundamentally ‘different’ and putting it out there into the world is the very definition of courage especially when there is a very real chance of rejection. The fear, the denial and the courage to be who you make him extremely relatable.
The Normal Heart is very much about the power of community – what’s a time where you personally experienced/witnessed the power of community?
We only have to look at what happened in Oslo recently to see an incredible example of the LGBTQIA+ community coming together. A gunman opened fire at a Pride event killing two people and injuring 21. Despite police warnings Pride protesters held an LGBTQIA+ rally, came together in solidarity with placards reading “You can’t cancel us” and “Sexual Freedom”. The community coming together during tragedy, refusing to be scared, refusing to be silenced is deeply moving and makes me so proud.
Meet Michael Griffiths
What was your first ever encounter with The Normal Heart?
It sounds too farfetched to be true but my first encounter was back in 1997 when my new best friend (and fellow first year wide-eyed student) Dean Bryant suggested a bunch of us WAAPA Musical Theatre kids get together and have a read-through on term break as a little ‘project’. He proclaimed it as an important AIDS play that we should be aware of. This is back when he had grand ambitions of being a ‘director one day’ and here we are full circle.
How do you identify with your character? Have you faced any obstacles in your own life similar to those of your character?
As a queer person I’ve spent my life exploring and coming to terms with my identity, both on and off stage. There’s a current misconception that since gay marriage was passed, things are pretty much ‘the same’ for everyone but I know from working with current high school students and seeing firsthand bullying and their struggles for acceptance that we still need to tell stories that celebrate diversity and ‘otherness’. I think art serves as a reminder that there is no such thing as ’normal’ and we’re all as peculiar and troubled as the next person and to take consolation from that knowingness.