REVIEW: Forty Years On, THE NORMAL HEART Is A Powerful piece of Theatre That Informs, Challenges And Remains Important In the 21st Century.
THE NORMAL HEART
By: Jade Kops Feb. 14, 2026
Thursday 12th February, 2026, 7:30pm, Drama Theatre Sydney Opera House
First presented in New York in 1985, Larry Kramer’s THE NORMAL HEART takes audiences back to the early days of the AIDS epidemic in New York. An historical work four decades on, it remains an important insight into the political, social, media and medical landscape that largely tried to downplay the new mysterious disease killing otherwise healthy gay men.
Directed by Dean Bryant, this production, that premiered at State Theatre Company of South Australia in 2022, is captivating and compelling for all audiences, not just the gay community. Billed as being semi-autobiographical, the central character Ned Weeks (Mitchell Butel) is a Jewish American writer who has started to notice that members of his community are dying at initially concerning rates with the timeframe between symptoms appearing and death being alarmingly short. While he tries to get answers, from friend a physician, the similarly concerned Dr Emma Brookner (Emma Jones), a role modelled on Dr Linda Laubenstein who treated a number of the early cases in New York, he wants to protect his community but the media and government are loathe to report and act because the victims are gay men. The story spans three years of Weeks’ and his friends and colleagues’ fight to have the plight of his community heard, funding into research to be provided and acknowledgement from government leaders that they have an obligation to their citizens to take care of them.
Designer Jeremy Allen has created an expansive space that serves as the hospital where Dr Brookner treats her patients, complete with peeling paint, grimy windows and a copper relief mural, Ned’s upscale apartment adorned with the latest fashion in furniture, offices, a phone room and municipal buildings where Ned and his colleagues from the action group he founded wait for hours for an audience with a disinterested mayor’s assistant. Nigel Levings lighting design along with changes in furniture help differentiate the spaces and keep the focus on the story. Allen has dressed his cast in clothes that reflect the era and the community, with a particularly striking opening scene of the majority of the cast dancing at a stylised nighclub, that makes way for a variety of day to day outfits that reflect those that are more obviously ‘out’ and those that are still seeking to fit in with the mainstream.
In addition to Butel and Jones, Bryant has gathered a strong cast for the Sydney season. Tim Draxl takes on the ‘good cop’ role of Bruce Niles, the heterosexual passing man that everyone seems to want, who prefers a softer approach than Ned, as much as to not scare people but also to protect his own image to the world that doesn’t know he is gay. Nicholas Brown steps into the role of Felix Turner, the New York Times style editor that Ned appeals to report on the rising cases but is too scared it will jeopardise his work position, and despite never reporting on the epidemic, becomes the romantically repressed Ned’s lover. Keiynan Lonsdale is the overtly camp no nonsense, but ultimately caring Southerner Tommy Boatright while Fraser Morrison takes on some of the minor roles. Butel and Jones are reprising their performances along with Mark Saturno as Ned’s self-absorbed homophobic lawyer big brother, Evan Lever as Health administrator and health article writer Mickey Marcus, and Michael Griffiths as Mayor’s assistant Hiram Keebler and resident pianist. The onstage musical interludes are presented by Griffiths and Rowena Macneish on cello for the Sydney season.
Written following the early years of the AIDS epidemic, THE NORMAL HEART was Kramer’s way to highlight the inaction and obstruction that he and his colleagues and friends faced when trying to get the message out so is naturally a very charged piece of theatre, expressing his anger and frustration. There are some brilliant monologues delivered by Butel, Jones and Lever that express the outrage but THE NORMAL HEART is also about relationships, community and love. Bryant ensures that the human side is also clear and nuanced with particularly wonderful performances from Butel who always manages to inject a quirky comedy at just the right moments that infuse every aspect of his expression. He ensures that Ned is seen as both professionally successful but socially awkward and the ‘first date’ with Felix is priceless and is a brilliant counterpoint to Ned’s passion and conviction when fighting to be heard.
THE NORMAL HEART is a must-see performance. It is powerful in helping audiences that may not have been aware of the history of the AIDS epidemic and the fight for recognition and equal treatment where the government of the day were loathe to fund research because it was predominantly affecting gay men, a community viewed as outside of mainstream society and conservative values. It is important in realising the parallels to current issues of adequate government care provisions to minority groups, particularly when there seems to be backward steps around the world in acknowledging and accepting the LGBTQI community. It is captivating in its expression of the personal nature of understanding of love that for Ned was redefined through the course of the story.
The Normal Heart - Sydney Theatre Company
Photos: Neil Bennett
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