‘Kramer/Fauci’ Plays Back a Political Battle From a More Civil Time

Before the COVID pandemic made Anthony Fauci a national lightning rod, he was a controversial figure in a smaller, but just as fiercely committed, community. As a key advisor on HIV/AIDS issues for presidents dating back to Ronald Reagan, Dr. Fauci became both an ally and a sparring partner for activists—none more so than Larry Kramer, the acclaimed playwright who in the 1980s co-founded Gay Men’s Health Crisis and helped launch AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, the influential political group generally referred to as ACT-UP.In November 1993, Dr. Fauci and Kramer matched wits on a live call-in program on CSPAN. After Kramer’s death in 2020, a video of that debate came to the attention of Daniel Fish, a director whose own fundamentally experimental work has itself often proven divisive: Several years back, Mr. Fish’s reimagining of “Oklahoma!” was hailed as starkly bold by admirers, while detractors—of which I was one—found it dry and joyless.The result is “Kramer/Fauci,” an hourlong docudrama conceived and helmed by Mr. Fish, who drew the text entirely from the telecast. Thomas Jay Ryan, a stage and screen veteran, plays Kramer, who is calling into the studio from New York; Will Brill, an alumnus of Mr. Fish’s “Oklahoma!”, who more recently won a Tony Award playing a louche musician in “Stereophonic,” is cast as Dr. Fauci—or Tony, as Kramer calls him.By the time this confrontation aired more than three decades ago, Tony and Larry, as we’ll refer to them, had developed more than a grudging respect for each other. “I love Tony, actually,” Larry says at one point. “I think I probably have a more complicated relationship with Tony than anybody in my entire life.” The activist explains, “I just get angry when he puts on this bureaucratic suit”—one of numerous times he’ll hurl the B-word at the doctor.Larry’s tone becomes far less nuanced when he addresses government officials, including President Clinton, whom he accuses of not dedicating sufficient resources or an appropriate sense of urgency to ending the “plague”; Larry scoffs at the term “epidemic.” Tony gently defends the president, noting that he has appointed an AIDS czar and increased research funding.The actors make these exchanges compelling and frequently comical, with Mr. Brill’s impeccably polite, reserved Tony—even his “New Yawk” accent is understated—providing a foil to Mr. Ryan’s wry, tortured Larry, whose flashes of rage become more poignant as the conversation progresses.Greig Sargeant brings a deadpan affability to the role of the CSPAN moderator, who fields calls from viewers across the country, all of them voiced by Jennifer Seastone, who early in the show begins gliding across the vast, nearly bare stage at NYU Skirball in roller skates; presumably, this is to indicate that the plague is traveling and spreading even as the program continues.To drive home this point further, Mr. Fish and scenic designers Jim Findlay, Josh Higgason, and Amy Rubin later roll out a foam machine, which over several long minutes of silence fills at least half of the stage with froth. The director has Mr. Brill scoot down in it before it starts to dissolve, and Mr. Ryan starts trying to sweep the wet stuff up—obviously representing Larry’s efforts to deal with a bigger mess.I’ll admit I’m still not sure why Mr. Fish also has Ms. Seastone, after taking off her skates, bring out a giant, bright yellow cartoon-bird costume, put it on, and slowly dismantle it—all while representing a succession of callers.Happily, Mr. Fish has at least not messed with the verbal content of this heated, intermittently affectionate clash of titans, and “Kramer/Fauci” emerges as an engaging document of its era—a time, not terribly long ago, when political battles could still be fought with relative civility and mutual respect.

‘Kramer/Fauci’ Plays Back a Political Battle From a More Civil Time

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