AS IS to Open at the Finborough Theatre This August

The first London production since the 1987 UK premiere of William M. Hoffman's As Is opens at the Finborough Theatre for a four week limited season on Tuesday, 6 August 2013 (Press Night: Thursday, 8 August at 7.30pm), directed by multi-award-winning director Andrew Keates.

New York City, 1985.

Rich, a young writer who is beginning to find success, is breaking up with his longtime lover, Saul, a professional photographer. However Rich's idyll with his new lover is short-lived when he learns that he has contracted the terrifying new disease AIDS and returns to Saul for sanctuary as he awaits its slow and awful progress.

In a mosaic of brilliantly conceived short scenes, blending humour, poignance and dazzling theatricality, As Is captures the pathos of Rich's relationship with friends and family, the cold impersonality of the doctors and nurses who care for him and the widely diverse aspects of New York's gay community. A heartbreaking and unsparing examination of a deeply felt human relationship shattered by a mindless, destructive disease.

As Is was a revolutionary and groundbreaking play of its time, and remains sadly still urgently relevant - the number of gay and bisexual men being diagnosed with HIV in the UK reached an "all-time high" in 2011 (figures from the Health Protection Agency).

As Is was the winner of the Obie and Drama Desk Awards, one of Time Magazine's 'Best Plays of the Year' and nominated for a Tony Award for Best Play. It was originally produced Off-Broadway by The Circle Repertory Company in 1985, and subsequently transferred to Broadway. It was televised in 1986, directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg. It now receives its first London production since the 1987 UK premiere at the Half Moon Theatre.

Playwright William M. Hoffman was born in New York in 1939. His many other works include both plays and opera libretti including the libretto for The Ghosts of Versailles, commissioned by The Metropolitan Opera Company, in celebration of the company's centenary, and the 1993 television version starring Teresa Stratas and Renée Fleming which was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award. Hoffman is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, three National Endowment Awards, ASCAP and Fund for New American Plays awards, two grants from the New York Foundation for the Arts, and the Erwin Piscator Award. He is co-founder and co-chair of Prima le Parole, the international librettists organizatioN. Hoffman is co-director of the Department of Dramatic Writing at Purchase College, SUNY, and has been a critic for The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, the Village Voice and Vogue.

Multi-award-winning director Andrew Keates will be directing his third production at the Finborough Theatre following ROOMS - A Rock Romance, and last year's sell-out production of Passing By by Martin Sherman. Most recently, he directed and developed the award-winning professional world premiere of A Winter's Tale, written by Howard Goodall, Nick Stimson and himself. Andrew first came to attention after his production of Bent in 2010 at the Landor Theatre, which then transferred to the Tabard Theatre for a further run. Recent productions include The Thing About Men and The Hired Man (both at the Landor Theatre),Conjugal Rites (Courtyard Theatre) and Just So (Tabard Theatre). His work has received many award nominations, including Best Director for Bent, Best Director for Just So, Best Entertainment for Just So and most recently, winning Best New Musical for A Winter's Tale and Best Musical Production for The Hired Man in the OffWestEnd Awards. Andrew is the founder and artistic director of Arion Productions Ltd.

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