Almost everything about this play is rather wonderful, and gladdening in its ethics. A play tackling head-on the polymorphous issues of living with HIV in the modern world, it does so with intelligence, warm humour and emotional power. It’s testament to the wit and verve of Shaun Kitchener’s exceptionally sharp script that even though it fairly often commits the cardinal theatrical sin of simply having two characters sitting down on stage – which in lesser written productions usually lulls the action and saps energy – that the audience’s attention is kept rapt throughout.
Following its central gay male character Benji, who has been living a hermetically reclusive life since his diagnosis, the plot opens with his tentative and ultimately backfiring dip back into the whirlpool of contemporary gay clubbing life. With a clever structure that oscillates through time and settings, the talented acting cast deliver lines that deal with HIV stigma, sexual rejection, disclosure to new partners, viral load and even the lesser spoken subject of living a heterosexual life with the virus. Brilliant theatrical metaphors, such as a dinner date where the status is constantly changing, portray subliminally underlying themes wrapped around this concept of ‘status’.
Each character is likable, drawn succinctly, and even the figures that express the most prejudice are shown to do so through ignorance and fear rather than abject hate. The character of the mother, Margo (fantastically played by Sally George) was a hugely powerful force as a representative of an older section of British society that not only doesn’t understand HIV, but also being gay. Shaun Kitchener himself shone as the hugely likeable potential lover Matt and Timothy George held everything together admirably as Benji throughout.
Perhaps for me, though, the very most powerful character was Jamie-Rose Monk’s sexual health worker Jennifer, reminiscent of any number of brilliant people in 56 Dean Street and other sexual health clinics who are devoted to helping others not just because of their jobs but because they care.
The most powerful message that one walked out of the theatre feeling after seeing Positive was of empathy and hope. And what a truly positive way to feel.
By Patrick Cash
Star rating: *****
• POSITIVE
• Waterloo East Theatre, Brad Street, SE1 8TG
• May 13th – June 1st, Tues- Sat 7.30pm. 4pm Sun. £15 (£13 concs).
• Twitter: @PositivePlayLDN / @WestAvenueTC
• www.west-avenue.co.uk
