Michael Brosilow
Hannah Ruwe, left, and La Shawn Banks in 'Casey and Diana.'
Hannah Ruwe, left, as Princess Diana, and La Shawn Banks as Thomas in 'Casey and Diana' at American Players Theatre. Ruwe nails Diana’s demure essence.
Playwright Nick Green’s Casey and Diana premiered at the 2023 Stratford Festival of Canada and is now making its regional premiere at American Players Theatre’s intimate Touchstone Theatre.
The play imagines the week leading up to the 1991 visit of Princess Diana to Casey House, a hospice in Toronto dedicated to the care of men with HIV/AIDS in their final days. Today, an HIV diagnosis no longer carries the death sentence it once did (though access to lifesaving treatment remains deeply unequal, especially following cuts to USAID-supported programs).
It's easy to forget the speed and devastation of the AIDS crisis in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Amid fear, stigma, and rampant misinformation, Princess Diana helped transform public perception simply by embracing people living with AIDS without gloves or hesitation.
Death is the one inevitability we all share, but hospice care seeks to make that final passage as compassionate and dignified as possible. Casey House stood at the forefront of that philosophy for men dying of AIDS, providing not only medical care but also the humanity many had been denied elsewhere.
Joe Cerqua’s sound design sets the tone before the play begins, with early '90s classics like Prince’s "Cream" and "Disappear" from INXS playing through the theater’s PA system as the audience members take their seats. A miniature model of the actual Casey House glows from within like a magical shrine. Scott Penner's smart set centers on a sparse double room at Casey House — two hospital beds, trunks, nightstands, and the accumulated artifacts of interrupted lives. The surrounding hallways and nurses' station emerge through use by the actors, creating a sense of an entire community existing just beyond the room's walls.
Thomas (La Shawn Banks) has spent the last five months at Casey House, making him the longest hospice resident, enduring the exits and entrances of too many roommates. His newest roommate is Andre (a nuanced and honest Joe Meyer) a young man brought to Casey House via ambulance, and who, like Thomas, is estranged from his family. When Vera (Elizabeth Ledo) the competent, no-nonsense nurse, announces that Princess Diana will be making a visit, she is careful to say that the royal arrival will be in seven days instead of a week, since the span of a full week seems too daunting for men struggling to make it through another day. Ledo is both assured and commanding in the role.
Thomas is buoyed by the news and launches into action, rallying the other (unseen) patients, proclaiming, “I have decided that we are going to make it. We are going to sit up. We’re going to eat. We’re going to do our hair.”
New hospice volunteer Marjorie (Colleen Madden) is reeling from the loss of a dear friend to AIDS and is determined to make an impact at Casey House, even though her well-intentioned actions often cross boundaries, prompting concerns from Vera. Marjorie trades delightfully sassy banter with Thomas, and more importantly forges a close bond with Andre.
Hannah Ruwe nails Diana’s demure essence, the lowered head and graceful physicality, but wisely avoids imitation, instead capturing Diana's unmistakable warmth and ability to make every person feel worthy of her complete attention.
Banks, who has performed with APT for 10 seasons, was just recently named a Core Company member. This is a historic role because it is apparently the first time that a main character in an APT production has been definitively gay. Banks gives us glimpses into the vibrant man Thomas once was before illness overtook him. His acerbic and sardonic wit includes references to Steel Magnolias and The Golden Girls, and costume designer Daniele Tyler Mathews (who also served as HIV consultant for the show) gives the character a perfect early '90s jewel-toned tracksuit and a denim jacket with Madonna emblazoned on the back. Banks broke my heart as he described and demonstrated what it would take to physically and emotionally make it through each minute of these seven full days. In turn prickly, vulnerable, funny and courageous, Banks delivers a performance that underscores how well-deserved his Core Company appointment is.
As Thomas’ sister Pauline, Dee Dee Batteast is a force to be reckoned with. Her emotionally charged confrontation with Banks as two siblings inching toward forgiveness after years of hurt is the production's most devastating and satisfying scene.
Madden remains a marvel and one of APT's great treasures. Working in the intimacy of the Touchstone Theatre, the smallest flicker of expression like the playful twitch at the corner of her mouth, communicates volumes. It is a real magic trick when live theater presents an equivalent to a cinematic close-up.
Making his APT directing debut, Michael Herwitz demonstrates strong tonal control. In less capable hands (or with a weaker ensemble) the play could easily tip into sentimentality. Instead, Herwitz allows the humor to arise naturally while never diminishing the reality of the characters' suffering. As is often the case at APT, even when a script doesn't entirely resonate with me, the productions themselves rarely disappoint. Casey and Diana elicited both genuine laughter and real tears without slipping into melodrama.
Casey and Diana filled me with sorrow for friends, teachers and family members lost to AIDS far too soon. Yet Thomas's transcendent final exit (beautifully supported by Mathews' costume design) also left me grateful for those who continue to fight for compassion, dignity and hope, even in life's final moments.
Casey and Diana runs through Sept. 24.
