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For
twenty-five years now, AIDS has hung over
the lives of gay men like a persistent storm
cloud. And during that time, circuit
parties, with their emphasis on community,
camaraderie, and Dionysian abandon have
provided something of an outlet for the
grief and loss. Andrew Barnett’s play Rainy
Days and Mondays, part of the 10th Annual
New York International Fringe Festival
highlights the ways in which AIDS and the
circuit are bound together in a kind of
dance against death. Performed by a quartet
of actors and directed by Niegel Smith, the
six scenes which comprise Rainy Days
juxtapose the bacchanalian circuit parties
with the quotidian toll of AIDS on a young
urban gay couple. The first circuit party,
arguably, was held in Columbus, Ohio in 1986
as an AIDS fund-raiser, and in the ensuing
twenty years, numerous circuit parties
around the world have raised funds to
support local and national organizations in
the fight against AIDS. Barnett’s four
characters travel from Columbus to Montreal
and Miami, to Sydney and Orlando, always
partying in their hotel rooms as a family,
before heading to the massive parties. The
four boys are well-intentioned and
well-raised by mostly supportive families,
and yet, the role of AIDS in their lives has
distanced them from the concerns of
mainstream America. Using drugs and humor,
in near-equal measure, these four characters
search for ways to connect, not only to each
other, but to something that might outlive
AIDS. In a beautifully-written scene, Brian
(well-played by Michael Carbonaro, of recent
Another Gay Movie fame) encounters his dead
lover, Paul, in a Sydney hotel room, and
convinces his two friends to see Paul with
him – and the ensuing hysteria attains a
transcendent beauty whereby characters and
audience willfully suspend disbelief. Just
as with circuit parties, there’s more to
Rainy Days and Mondays than what first meets
the eyes.
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