June 23 - September 24

Grit and Glitter

The Casey House is thrumming – the People’s Princess is coming. And with her, a reason to hold on just a little longer. As the patients and caretakers of this AIDS hospice begin the emotional calisthenics that will get them to D-Day, they come face-to-face with themselves – the memories they treasure and truths they’ve tried to outrun. Sick people are, after all, still people – witty and prickly and perfectly human, as they balance life’s ledgers. It’s a story steeped in a truth and rooted by characters to root for. A lyrical reminder that even at life’s last precipice, there’s room for hope. Funny and unflinching, an emotional tour‑de‑forc.

Synopsis

In 1991, as the AIDS epidemic devastates the gay community and stokes global stigma, a Toronto hospice prepares for a remarkable visitor: Princess Diana. Her arrival offering a glimmer of hope for understanding and compassion. As patients and caregivers prepare for the big day, they share stories, fears and moments of joy – reminding each other of their strength and humanity in the face of loss. A tender, unflinching drama about resilience, dignity and the small acts of grace that hold the power to change lives.

ASL Interpreted Performance: Sunday, September 20 at 1 pm
Interpreters: Havalah Teaman and Caden Marshall

Contains adult themes and language. Theatrical haze will be used during this production. Contact the Box Office at 608-588-2361 for specific content information.

Season Select: Casey and Diana

Casey and Diana: Suggested Readings and Podcasts

Portable Prologue: Casey and Diana (Apple Podcasts)

Portable Prologue: Casey and Diana (Spotify)

Moving 'Casey and Diana' plumbs the messy layers of hope
Lindsay Christians, The Cap Times

Casey and Diana at APT Teaser
Video by Hannah Jo Anderson

Review: American Players Theatre: Casey and Diana
Allie Bugajski, Allie and the After Part

American Players Theatre's 'Casey and Diana' deftly looks back to the AIDS crisis
Katie Reiser, Isthmus

Moving and Poignant, APT's 'Casey and Diana' Mixes Laughter and Tears
Anne Siegel, Shepherd Express

Director's Note

I first read the script to Casey and Diana six months after my Mother had died. My Mother, Helaine Hertzlich, was a nurse practitioner and Rodgers and Hammerstein enthusiast with an uncanny ability to connect to gay men. She was healthy, then sick, then healthy again, then sick again, and then she was dead. I remember looking at my sister on the day we realized she was going to die. “Let’s do this right,” I whispered.

The mission of Toronto’s Casey House was to create a space where gay men afflicted with HIV/AIDS could die with dignity. While most of the world shunned a community crying for help, Casey House provided sanctuary ten beds at a time. In 1991, a visit from the People’s Princess put a dent in the wall of stigma that was (and continues to be) as deadly as the virus itself.

I couldn’t save my Mother, just as the care teams at Casey House could not save the residents, but in the days my Mom took to die, she and the chosen family that surrounded her bed brimmed with life. With Casey and Diana, playwright Nick Green submits a new piece into a rich theatrical legacy of queer plays, but narrows his scope to the space between a breath in and a breath out. Through a story about dying, Green celebrates the human capacity to endure.

It is a great honor to direct the first play in APT history to put an unmistakably gay character in the center of the story. I look forward to a future in which a queer character needs not a Princess nor a disease to take the final bow, but I am indebted to that princess and awestruck by the profound beauty and universality of this play. In honor of the many queer artists who did not live to tell their own stories, we share Casey and Diana.

Mom, I think you would have loved it.

– Michael Herwitz, Director of Casey and Diana