'Fauci and Kramer': I attended a play about the pandemic, I was the only one masked.

(Photo: Tomas Maz)

by Clara Tan, Guest Editorial

It makes one wonder how far we’ve moved from the early days of 2020, the desperate attempt to reclaim a status quo that no longer exists. The play in question was Fauci and Kramer, the latest play by Drew Fornarola, of Tiananmen and Shrek the Halls fame.

Fauci and Kramer presents us with a scenario where the COVID czar himself, Dr. Anthony Fauci is visited by the apparition of recently deceased playwright and activist, Larry Kramer. The play is a two-hander, where Kramer and Fauci discuss and debate the nature of life, death, and the handling of two pandemics, AIDS and COVID. Very much a spiritual successor to My Dinner with Andre, The Dumb Waiter, or Constellations.

Synopsis-wise, it’s a short summary. The analysis comes in on the topics that Fauci and Kramer, and through them, Fornarola decides to weigh in on. We are presented with the images of two men, one the institutionalist doctor, working within the framework of government power to try and do the best he can, the other the angry activist who is passionate, fiery, and frustrated at the speed that the wheels of government turn. From a political standpoint, it’s almost a perfect microcosm of the leftist tendency to form circular firing squads.

Now, I’m a big advocate of the diversity of tactics. It is necessary to have multiple prongs of power when addressing an issue. That is why we have activists on the outside and government officials on the inside sympathetic to the cause. Ultimately, both are necessary.

Throughout the entire play, Kramer constantly berates Fauci for his action (or inaction) taken during the AIDS pandemic. This to me, is a symptom of the misunderstanding that the most passionate among us frequently make. The enemy of the queer community was not the medical establishment, but the conservative government led by Reagan, who threw out his close friend Rock Hudson when he was dying of AIDS.

The main theme of the play is not a political dialectic, or even two men of opposite political ideologies sparring. Ultimately, the play showcases how activism, while important and necessary, can easily be misdirected towards the incorrect targets. For example, Kramer spends a lot of time criticizing Fauci for not doing enough to get experimental AIDS and HIV treatment medications out to the public. However, one should note that Fauci did not have control over drug approval.

That would’ve been under the purview of the FDA. Interestingly enough, Kramer does not talk at all about the work of Surgeon General C. Everett Koop, who took the unprecedented action of mailing out the pamphlet “Understanding AIDS” to every American household, or Koop’s work in promoting safe sex and the usage of condoms.

I am reminded of the passionate fervor of the Ceasefire movement here in the United States, which has directed its ire at President Biden for their evaluation that he has not done enough to stop the slaughter happening in Gaza. Never mind the fact that Biden’s foreign policy team and diplomats have been pushing that for months or the relief efforts that are currently underway being blocked by Israel. There is so much that passionate activists will do, without realizing that their zeal should be directed towards other targets.

Dr Fauci was not one of the people who advised gay people to die of the new “cancer” that was spreading. That was Senator Jesse Helms. The silence did not come from the NIH (National Institute of Health) or NIAID (National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases). That was thanks to Reagan, who did not publicly mention the words AIDS or HIV until 1985.

Near the end of the play, Dr Fauci talks about how Larry Kramer was forced out of the GMHC (Gay Men's Health Crisis), thanks to his disagreements with the other founders on how he felt the organization was being run. In The Normal Heart, the character of Bruce, a stand-in for Paul Popham, president of the GMHC, represents the assimilationist side of the gay rights movement.

We are treated to this exchange:

MICKEY. You know, the battle against the police at Stonewall was won by transvestites. We all fought like hell. It's you Brooks Brothers guys who—

BRUCE. That's why I wasn't at Stonewall. I don't have anything in common with those guys, girls, whatever you call them.

Kramer, we can be sure, had his heart in the right place. Despite his depiction within the play as being loud, queer, and prone to histrionics, one is never left with any doubt that the man was trying his best with the information he had.

With the play being set during the early days of the pandemic, specifically around the end of May 2020, there would be criticism to level at Dr. Fauci, some of which is covered, such as the early advice to not wear masks to conserve supply for the medical professionals.

Ultimately, most of the issues could easily be traced to the weak federal response the Trump administration helmed, as well as the patchwork approach the various states and governors took towards the shutdowns and mask mandates. Kramer has a whole clip show prepared of Trump’s greatest hits during the early days of the pandemic, such as his comments about using UV light to kill the virus inside the body or the immediate scapegoating of Chinese individuals.

Kramer makes it clear that his entire goal is to try and prompt some kind of strong emotional response from Dr Fauci, to try and goad him into openly criticizing Trump and Reagan. Once again, this is an example of misdirected anger. Fauci could not, or would not openly denigrate those he was working under, but that was not his job. That would’ve been the job of activists like Larry Kramer, who can say things in plainer language than our elected officials.

I am reminded of a video that circulated on social media, of a group of protesters confronting Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez at a mall in Brooklyn. Their specific gripe was that she had not condemned the genocide in Gaza, or called it such.

Leaving aside the fact that the congresswoman has been doing so in Congress repeatedly and has stood with her colleagues who are also doing the same, it astounds me that these protestors are willing to attack one of the most openly left-leaning representatives we currently have in our government. What does this achieve, exactly?

That anger and vitriol could be better directed towards actual evil. But the left in America seems to be allergic to winning, or to consolidating power in any meaningful way, instead, we carp and crab about those among us who are not pure enough. I wonder, what did those kids do to help the Gazans after they got their viral video moment?

Larry Kramer, for all his faults, certainly was willing to act. His confrontational attitude and tendency towards direct action were funneled at targets other than Dr Fauci, especially after the founding of ACT UP. For example, the FDA was actively protested by ACT UP, which would be a more accurate target than the NIH or NIAID.

All in all, there is a lot of meditation to be had about Dr. Anthony Fauci and Larry Kramer. The play only touches upon points of these two men’s titanic careers. The actors, Steve Jakiel as Fauci and Louis Colaiacovo as Kramer give two very contrasting performances. Colaiacovo as Kramer comes across as largely passionate, loud, and constantly angry, while Jakiel maintains the calmer side of the script, more in line with that of Dr Fauci’s public briefings.

It is clear to me that neither of these men is trying to actively imitate the real-life figures but to act as the two sides of the dialectic that emerges as the core of the play.

But there was one thing, overall, that struck me the most.

I attended a play about the pandemic, and I was the only one masked.

The show runs approximately 80 Minutes, with no intermission. Tickets are $30 general admission and $20 for students and seniors. Get tickets at www.FirstLookBuffalo.com or at the door. For more information call 716-771-6358 or email FirstLookBuffalo@gmail.com.