What Is The Normal Heart? A Review Of The Philippine Production Of 'The Normal Heart'
by Jay Fernando (Note: The opinions expressed in this review do not necessarily reflect the views of LoveYourself.) “We must love one another or die.” W.H. Auden hated that line and struck it out of the poem he wrote where the phrase The Normal Heart came from. But the line remained on various published versions of the poem and these words must have resonated with Larry Kramer, playwright of The Normal Heart when he wrote that powerful exchange between Ned Weeks and his brother Ben as Ned confronted him about his homophobia: BEN: Agreeing that you were born just the same as I was born isn't gonna save your dying friends. NED: That is exactly what is going to save my dying friends! This may be debated upon – that it is an incessant belief that homosexuality is a crime and a disease that is killing us off and not HIV – is only one among the various points made by the play, arguments that could not be resolved overnight . It wasn't abou...