Living with Henry was a hit at last year’s Toronto Fringe Festival, and now the production is back and better than ever for the Next Stage Theatre Festival. The semi-autobiographical show (based on Producer Christopher Wilson’s life) examines HIV/AIDS as a manageable illness instead of a death sentence (as it is often portrayed in many pieces of theatre). The show strives to present a universal theme of overcoming insurmountable challenges – in order to arrive at a place of peace and understanding.
The show is a full-on musical production, and features some of Toronto’s best musical theatre talents, including Dora Award Winner Ryan Kelly. Kelly was most recently seen in the Studio 180 production of The Normal Heart where he played Mickey Marcus to rave reviews . He took some time to talk with BWW about what his new adventure on Living With Henry, and about his propensity for ending up in roles that somehow deal with disease, struggle and the human spirit:
Could you sum up "Living with Henry" for those readers that don't know anything about the show?
It’s about living life in the now, in 2011/2012. It’s about living life with HIV/AIDS and the challenges that come with living with the disease. It explores things such as the stigma, issues about disclosure, health concerns and medication. But the heart of the show is about the relationships, and about growing from one phase of life into another. It’s the second incarnation of the show (the first being at Toronto Fringe) and we have made a lot of changes, and this is an even more fleshed out version than the first one.
And it’s a musical…
It is! Christopher Wilson is an incredible musician and I’m blown away by what he has created. What’s exciting is that everyone who has been involved with the show has worked in musical theatre professionally for most of their careers, so everyone comes in with a great sense of musicality, lyrics and connection. It makes it a really fun show to sing.
Do you think HIV/AIDS may (to some people) seem odd fodder for a musical?
It could, but the show handles the materially really sensitively. It’s biographical so whatever came out of Chris musically he was speaking from his heart when he created the show. Our Director Donna Marie Baratta is a really close friend of his so she’s handling the show with sensitivity as well. And most of the cast know Chris and his story personally so we are all very committed to doing this the right way.
I find that people sing in musicals because they can’t express what they need to express through spoken word, so a lot of our music in the show represents feelings and relationships. It isn’t necessarily about HIV/AIDS, but rather about the process of living with it. We bring in some comedy as well, this story isn’t about a death sentence. Traditionally a lot of AIDS plays and musicals have been very tragic, but this isn’t a tragic story. Tragedy happens and things go wrong in the characters lives, but it’s not about HIV/AIDS being the end of the world. Instead, it’s about it being the end of an old world and the beginning of a new one.
Do you feel that communicating this idea that HIV/AIDS is no longer a death sentence is an important message in today’s society?
I think so. And we don’t mean it to devalue in any way the importance of AIDS prevention. The message in this show is not one of saying “oh AIDS is no big deal.” Disease prevention is still crucially important in society, but because the disease is now a manageable syndrome there is a whole new area of life experience for a whole population of people that has never been explored in musical theatre form before. That’s what this show does.
For you personally HIV/AIDS is a subject matter that you’ve covered a lot in your career. Why is it that you gravitate towards these types of pieces?
It seems to be a theme I keep coming back to! This is my fourth play where HIV/AIDS has had some sort of relevance. Will The Real JT LeRoy Please Stand Up, The Normal Heart, I Have AIDS and Living with Henry. And of course I did The Cancer Play and I even made a short film about herpes! So I guess disease in general is a theme that I keep exploring.
HIV is a particularly heavy theme and I take the subject of the human condition very seriously. I love flaws in humanity because as an actor it gives you something really interesting to get in touch with. You get to explore the poor decisions a person may have made and yet not judge them. And as a sensitive person and an actor who loves exploring flaws, I find that I get a lot of gratification from playing someone who faces a lot of challenge. So maybe I gravitate towards these roles, but maybe they also find me!
