This dissertation analyzes how American and British theater makers responded to the AIDS crisis, particularly to the widespread homophobic rhetoric that proclaimed AIDS to be the inevitable result of a sexually promiscuous lifestyle. It not only discusses well-known plays such as Larry Kramer's The Normal Heart and Tony Kushner's Angels in America, but also highlights forgotten or unknown works from the 1980s to the present day. Firstly, it demonstrates that the theatrical response to the epidemic was and is much greater than the few plays that are still part of the regular theater repertoire and are repeatedly discussed in academic studies. This dissertation also highlights the extensive arsenal of strategies that theater makers use in their fight against the blame rhetoric that accompanied the AIDS crisis. Finally, it argues how AIDS theater, as a form of memory activism, can still be relevant in our present day.
Dirk Visser studied English language and literature at the University of Groningen, where he graduated cum laude in 1992. He then spent some time at the University of Sussex, where he took courses in the department of “Sexual Dissidence and Cultural Change.” Afterwards, he entered the field of education and taught at various colleges and universities. For the past four years, he has taught at Radboud University, where he also completed his doctoral research. He currently teaches English literature at the University of Groningen.