AIDS: History of a Plague

Larry Kramer’s play The Normal Heart takes New York City by storm. The play, which opened at the city's famed Public Theater, expresses frustration at the climate of fear, silence, and ignorance surrounding AIDS -- in both the gay and straight communities. Frank Rich, then the New York Times theater critic, called the play a "fiercely polemical drama" with an "unflagging, at times even hysterical, sense of urgency."