WORLD PREMIERE

“God, I hated him … As far as I was concerned, he was the central focus of evil in the world.” – Larry Kramer on Anthony Fauci, in The New Yorker (2002).

“He attacked me, he called me a murderer, he called me an incompetent idiot, I mean publicly … It turned out I loved the guy, and I think he loved me back” – Anthony Fauci on Larry Kramer, PBS (2020).

“I’m looking at a particular moment in time, at a particular exchange that has resonances into their relationship, has resonances into the politics and culture of the time, and seeing what happens when we do that now.” – Daniel Fish, AP News (2025).

ABOUT THE WORK

Internationally acclaimed director Daniel Fish (Oklahoma!, White Noise) turns his eye to one of the most combustible conversations of the AIDS crisis: the 1993 televised clash between Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading AIDS researcher, and playwright-activist Larry Kramer. A confrontation charged with rage, urgency, and unexpected intimacy, it crystallized a turning point in the fight for care, treatment, and recognition. In this world premiere, Fish dramatizes their exchange as both history and provocation, a searing reminder of how art, activism, and public health collide on the most human terms. With Tony Award-winner Will Brill (Stereophonic) and Thomas Jay Ryan (Henry Fool).

RUN TIME

Kramer/Fauci runs approximately 1 hour with no intermission.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Daniel Fish is a New York-based director who makes work across the boundaries of theater, film, and opera. His work includes Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma! (Tony, Obie and Oliver Awards), Anne Carson’s Elektra (West End), Overand Over, an opera with music by Ted Hearne (Komiche Oper Berlin) and White Noise, inspired by the novel by Don DeLillo (Ruhrfestspiele Recklingshausen, NYU Skirball). He is currently developing Ordinary Day, a feature film based on a story by Lauren Groff. He has made work for the Fisher Center at Bard College, St. Ann’s Warehouse, and the Chocolate Factory among others. He is the recipient of he Herb Alpert Award in the Arts for the Theater. www.danielfish.net

Thomas Jay Ryan (Larry Kramer) With Daniel Fish: Eternal, Dollar General, Tom Ryan Thinks He’s James Mason…. Broadway: Enemy Of The People (Sam Gold, director), West Side Story (Ivo van Hove, director), The Nap (Daniel Sullivan, director), The Crucible (Ivo van Hove, director), In The Next Room Or The Vibrator Play (Les Waters, director). Off-Broadway: The original productions of Deep Blue Sound, Dance Nation, 10 Out of 12, The Temperamentals, The Amateurs, Becky Nurse of Salem, Venus, and several of Richard Foreman’s plays at the Ontological-Hysteric Theater. Films: feature films with the directors Michel Gondry, Bertrand Mandico, Muriel Paraboni, Robert Redford, Mary Lambert, Lynn Hershman-Leeson, Ian Olds, Drake Daramus, Jay Duplass, Dash Shaw, Onur Tukel, Eric Laplante, Susie Moon and Hal Hartley (four films including the title role in the Cannes Festival prize winning Henry Fool).

Will Brill (Dr. Anthony Fauci) Broadway: Oklahoma! (dir. Daniel Fish), Stereophonic (Tony award!), Act One, You Can’t Take It With You; Off-Broadway: Meet The Cartozians (2nd Stage), Our Town, Tribes (OCC nom) (Barrow Street), A Case for the Existence of God (Drama Desk nom) (Signature), The Counter (Roundabout), Uncle Vanya (Oh Henry), Illyria (the Public), Stereophonic (Drama Desk Ensemble Award) (Playwrights Horizons); Off-Off-Broadway: Up Late with Skip Carter (Shelby Co. at The Access), FGP LAY MIZ (Fresh Ground Pepper at Irondale), Restoration Comedy (EPBB), Ephemera (Shelby Co. at The Cove), Zero Cost House (Pig Iron on Zoom); other media: Caught Stealing, Test Pattern, Not Fade Away, Fellow Travelers, The OA, The Beast in Me, Monster: Ed Gein, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, #Z, King Kelly. Coming up: The Whisper Man, Being Heumann, The Musical, Wonder! A Woman Keeps a Secret!. He attended CMU where Tom Ryan also went.

Greig Sargeant is an actor, associated artist of Target Margin Theater, and company member of Elevator Repair Service. Recent credits include Trust, Faith & Confidence by Brian Quirk (Judson Church), The Autobiography of Malcolm X (Metropolitan Opera House), Baldwin and Buckley at Cambridge, Measure for Measure, and The Sound and the Fury (The Public Theater), Fondly, Collette Richland, Bonnie’s Last Flight, and The Little Foxes (New York Theatre Workshop), The Parable Conference (BAM), Please Bury Me/Go Forth (Baryshnikov Arts Center), Strictly Dishonorable (Vineyard Theater), Uncle Vanya (HERE), and Gatz (REDCAT). International Festivals: Adelaide, Amsterdam, Antwerp, Avignon, Berlin, Lisbon, Spoleto, and Vienna, Film credits include Help Me Mary (dir. Annie Tippe) and The Bad Infinity (dir. Graham Sack). MFA: West Virginia University.

Jennifer Seastone. With Daniel Fish: A (Radically Condensed and Expanded) Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again, (Chocolate Factory, Under The Radar, Arts Emerson and The Walker); with minor theater: Marie it’s Time, Pathetic, Grimly Handsome, Nomads, Dreamless Land and American Treasure (P13); Also: North Atlantic with The Wooster Group; The Gin Baby (Daniel Talbott); Our Planet (Alec Duffy, The Japan Society); with Thomas Bradshaw: Purity (PS122, Yahuda Duenas); The Bereaved (Partial Comfort, May Adrales), and Dawn (The Flea, Jim Simpson); also Clubbed Thumb, New Georges, and very many downtown playwrights. Selected Film: Hal Hartley’s The Girl From Monday, Meanwhile, and Ned Rifle.  2020 member of Target Margin Theater’s Institute; Founder of the performance series Catch. Jennifer is also a furniture maker and sculptor: jenniferseastone.com

CREATIVE CREDITS

Conceived and Directed by Daniel Fish
In association with The Collapsable Giraffe and OHenry Productions

Cast:
Moderator: Greig Sargeant
Dr. Anthony Fauci:  Will Brill
Larry Kramer: Thomas Jay Ryan
Naples, Florida/Baton Rouge, Louisiana/Prescott, Arizona/Houston, Texas/Park City, Illinois/San Jose, California/Elizabeth City, North Carolina/Fairfax, Virginia/Tulsa, Oklahoma/Bisbee, Arizona/Lexington Park, Maryland: Jennifer Seastone

Scenic Design: Jim Findlay, Josh Higgason, Amy Rubin
Lighting Design: Scott Zielinski
Sound Design: Tei Blow
Costume Design: Terese Wadden
Movement Director: Beth Gill
Assistant Director: Michael Rogerson
Assistant Lighting Designer: Yung-Hung Sung

Produced by Shannon Sindelar & Oliver Roth
Production Manager: Jonathan Cottle
Production Stage Manager: Alina Novotny
Assistant Stage Manager: Rachel Rice

With permission from C-SPAN 

Larry Kramer Text By Permission of the Estate of Larry Kramer

This work was developed with support from Mercury Store and Marzanne Claiborne.

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