AIDS. Heterosexual AIDS. Heterosexual AIDS comedy. It's true that heterosexual infection hasn't really been tackled yet in drama, and it's also true that no-one's dared to try making the issue comical. Michael Compton's script includes: the family who communicate through little notes; the cynical elder sister who brings her advertising nous to a fly-on-the-wall series about her sister's illness; the ludicrously trivialising chat-show; and finally, the sentimental full-circle death on the beach where Jo's first sexual encounter led to her infection. Director Peter Craze elicits a clutch of central performances which successfully catch the intimacy of family (even such a family), but he and his cast and the audience deserve better than the mawkish cop-outs which crop up all too frequently here.
Written for City Limits magazine.
Copyright © Ian Shuttleworth; all rights reserved.
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