Best Plays ABOUT Pandemics (Or Smaller Outbreaks)

[Jason Shatz]

Posted: 5/15/20 at 3:54pm

A lot of threads on this chat board are, justifiably, about the effects of the current pandemic on the theatre.  Meanwhile, I'm sure that there are several plays about an outbreak of disease and its consequences - be it a local outbreak, a pandemic, or anything in between.  In fact, I've thought of ideas for potential plays about the current pandemic (i.e. a journalist trying to gather facts about the outbreak by conducting remote interviews from an apartment).  

What are some classic plays that you can think of that involve outbreaks?

[jpbran]

Posted: 5/15/20 at 3:57pm

Angels in America is about AIDS, both directly and indirectly. The Normal Heart. Was there ever a stage version of And The Band Plays On? 

(EDIT: perhaps AIDS falls into the epidemic vs. pandemic category)

Updated On: 5/15/20 at 03:57 PM

[Jason Shatz]

Posted: 5/15/20 at 4:03pm

An AIDS outbreak would definitely count.

[TheSassySam]

Posted: 5/15/20 at 4:05pm

It seems a lot of companies are putting on a virtual reading of Lonely Planet which is about HIV/AIDS. 

[JBroadway]

Posted: 5/15/20 at 4:05pm

I realize that this doesn't quite fit the bill of what you're asking for, but the first play I thought of was "The Children" by Lucy Kirkwood. It's not about a disease outbreak, per se, but it's about a small town with a nuclear reactor meltdown. All of the "essential employees" working there are risking their lives by exposing themselves to radiation. The play follows 3 older people who were former employees, who have to decide if they want to sacrifice their remaining years of health by taking over the skeleton crew, and saving the younger employees from an early death. In a way it's sort of the inverse of what's happening now, where younger employees are putting their health at risk to protect the lives of the elderly. 

[JVJ93]

Posted: 5/15/20 at 4:22pm

An Enemy of the People

[ggersten]

Posted: 5/15/20 at 7:02pm

Oedipus Rex.

Various tales in The Decameron have been on stage - but I don't know about the framing for the Black Death.

There is a stage version of The Night of the Living Dead - kind of a pandemic....

Would you consider Rhinoceros as fitting?   A different kind of pandemic.

 

 

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 5/16/20 at 8:03am

In addition to the many plays about AIDS:

Ibsen's Ghosts 

Beirut, which was recently socially distanced performed and streamed, with Oscar Isaac and its original star, Marisa Tomei

The Plague, an adaptation of the Camus novel

While there have been few if any plays written during or in the aftermath of the 1918 flu, there was a play about it, Unity 18, which was well received

[Jason Shatz]

Posted: 5/18/20 at 11:24pm

On THE CHILDREN: Well, the themes would be similar, yes.

Updated On: 5/18/20 at 11:24 PM

[singerunlimited]

Posted: 5/19/20 at 10:44am

A cholera outbreak is referenced heavily throughout THE SECRET GARDEN.

[LarryD2]

Posted: 5/19/20 at 10:48am

Bruce Norris' A PARALLELOGRAM takes place in the wake of a global pandemic.

[kdogg36]

Posted: 5/19/20 at 12:45pm

Not quite on the mark I realize, but I’ll mention the wonderful contemporary opera Florencia en el Amazonas. 

[Jason Shatz]

Posted: 5/27/20 at 9:51pm

jpbran said: "Angels in America is about AIDS, both directly and indirectly. The Normal Heart. Was there ever a stage version of And The Band Plays On?

(EDIT: perhaps AIDS falls into the epidemicvs. pandemic category)"

And now we've lost Larry Kramer.  He was working on another play about another pandemic, only to breathe his last before he could express his final thoughts.  RIP

[Alex Kulak2]

Posted: 5/27/20 at 10:06pm

Jeffrey by Paul Rudnick is a play about a gay man trying to find love during the AIDS epidemic.

[ooblogway]

Posted: 5/27/20 at 11:37pm

One Flea Spare by Naomi Wallace is set in plague-ravaged 17th Century London.

Synopsis:  A wealthy couple is preparing to flee their home when a mysterious sailor and a young girl appear sneaking into their boarded-up house. Now, quarantined together for 28 days, the only thing these strangers fear more than the Plague is each other.