A Normal Heart

Civil Disobediance formed in response to news that diagnoses of HIV in Scotland are at their highest levels since records began. Recently chosen as one of the 100 Greatest Plays of the Twentieth Century, A Normal Heart is their opening shot in a campaign to raise awareness and funds.

Telford graduate Paul Comrie is Ned Weeks, a passionate gay activist fighting for action against the embryonic epidemic, aided by Emma Brookner, a wheelchair-bound physician who persuades him to campaign to the homosexual community while she struggles for research funding. Ned forms a group, only to be rejected as its president for his intensity. As the death toll spirals, Ned attacks those close to him for their lack of direct action - his straight-laced brother Ben (Stuart Nicol), closeted ex-marine Bruce Niles (Gareth Morrison) and his new lover, journalist Felix Turner (David Wallace).

Comrie plays Weeks with dry directness but begins with intensity at full volume, giving little room for modulation. Firing dense speeches at each other leaves the cast physically immobile and Comrie struggles to enervate the lecturing tone of their early dialogues. Wallace brings unaffected naturalism and a light comedic touch to his louche Felix, while Nicol is robustly convincing as Ben Weeks. Morrison's Niles is gruffly understated, Philip Burns puts emotional flair into Mickey Marcus, a health worker whose livelihood is threatened for being in the campaign, and Andy Thompson is pert as camp follower Tommy Boatright. The set is barely existent and the direction relies on the emotional intensity of the subject matter to carry the audience away.

However, the story is engaging and the cast relax into their roles as the tension rises. The tragedy is heightened as they face hundreds of cases where now we tackle millions. The strongest element of this unsophisticated yet heartfelt production is not the poignancy of death but the restless moral conundrum of when, where and how to take action against threats to our survival.