Finborough Theatre

As Is by William M Hoffman at the Finborough Theatre

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• published: 27 Dec 2013
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As Is by William M. Hoffman Finborough Theatre August 2013 Directed by Andrew Keates. Music by Matthew Strachan. Photography by Scott Rylander Cast: Jordan Bernarde. Tom Colley. John Hastings. Tom Kay. Clare Kissane. David Poynor. Paul Standell. Anna Tierney. Produced by Arion Productions Ltd. "Sometimes I'm so scared I go back on my resolutions: I drink too much, and I smoke a joint, and I find myself at the bars and clubs, where I stand around and watch. They remind me of accounts of Europe during the Black Plague: groping in the dark, dancing till you drop. The New Wave is the corpse look. I'm very frightened and I miss you. Say something, damn it." The first London production since the 1987 UK premiere of William M. Hoffman's As Is opened at the Finborough Theatre for a four week limited season on Tuesday, 6 August 2013. 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, some profoundly moving, some brightly humorous, 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. Blending humour, poignance and brilliant theatricality, As Is was a revolutionary and groundbreaking play of its time, and is still sadly urgently relevant as the number of gay and bisexual men being diagnosed with HIV in the UK reached an "all-time high" in 2011, according to the Health Protection Agency (HPA). 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 by the Circle Repertory Company Off-Broadway 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. The cast included Tom Colley as Rich, who recently finished playing Galileo in both the Hampstead Theatre and West End productions of The Judas Kiss, and David Poynor, best known for playing Lockwood in the National Theatre, Wyndham's Theatre and touring productions of The History Boys. Other cast members include Jordan Bernarde (Roland in Da Vinci's Demons), John Hastings (Can I Be Straight With You - Theatre503), Tom Kay (A Woman Killed With Kindness - National Theatre), Clare Kissane (The New Statesman at Trafalgar Studios, and New Boy for which she won Best Actress at the Dublin Gay Theatre Festival), Paul Standell (Vieux Carré - Kings Head and Charing Cross Theatre) and Anna Tierney (Tull - Octagon Theatre, Bolton).