Moving 'Casey and Diana' plumbs the messy layers of hope

Lindsay Christians, The Cap Times

Inside Casey House, hope has a sound.

Thomas, the longest tenured resident at this AIDS hospice in Toronto, can hear it “through the walls and floors … a faint, warm ringing. The whole house was ringing.”

In seven days, the people’s princess (“Princess freakin’ Diana,” per Thomas) will visit. Thomas and his sister “watched every single minute” of the royal wedding. He is determined to make it — to stay alive — until the princess arrives.

Nick Green’s play “Casey and Diana,” onstage indoors at American Players Theatre through Sept. 24, takes inspiration from a real visit the Princess of Wales paid to Canada’s first stand-alone hospice for people dying of AIDS in October 1991.

Commissioned by the Stratford Festival, “Casey” premiered in June 2023 and has already been widely produced in Canadian theaters.

La Shawn Banks, a new core acting company member and a regular at APT for more than a decade, slides into Thomas’ slippers like the role was written for him. Wickedly funny and incredibly quick, Thomas ribs the staff, tossing out “Golden Girls” references and quips from “Steel Magnolias.” Banks has a comedian’s hyper-tuned sense of timing. He’s divine.

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