This October, playwright Patrick Cash returns with his latest exploration of modern gay life, The HIV Monologues. After the success of his previous plays, The Chemsex Monologues and Superficial, which ran at The Glory earlier this summer, The HIV Monologues promises to be another unflinching look at the issues gay men continue to face.
The play follows two young men, Alex and Nick, who meet on Tinder and then go for a date. All is going swimmingly until Nick reveals his positive status, and Alex recoils in horror and bails on him. However, after encounters with pivotal figures from when HIV was not as easily treatable, including an Irish Nurse who treated AIDS patients in the 1980’s and a man who was amongst the first to take the new line of medication that came out in 1996, Alex changes his mind and vows to win Nick back.
With the rate of HIV infection continuing to rise in London’s gay population and the debate over whether PrEP should be made available on the NHS, this play is a timely exploration into the way the issue of HIV continues to loom large in the gay community.
With Cash’s previous plays gaining plaudits for being both touching and hard-hitting, The HIV Monologues promises to be another thought-provoking piece of theatre.
• The HIV Monologues will play at Miranda at The Ace Hotel in Shoreditch at 7pm Saturday 22nd, Thursday 27th and Friday 28th October. Tickets are £10 and are available to buy from dragonfliestheatre.co.uk.
