Sick
by Dahn Hiuni
Runtime: 90 - 100 mins
Cast: 1 female, 6 males
Synopsis:
SICK
tells the story of the early 1970s struggle to remove homosexuality from the
American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of
Mental Disorders. Based in part on the historical record, the play follows Ron
Gold, a gay activist and aversion therapy survivor, whose growing resolve to
rid the manual of its damning diagnosis puts him on a collision course with the
psychiatric establishment. Unbeknownst to Ron and his fellow activists, forces from
within the APA have also secretly begun to lobby for change. In the end,
those for removal of the diagnosis, and those against it, clash in a dramatic
confrontation at the 1973 APA Convention in Hawaii, where historic change is
about to take place. With humor and poignancy, early 70s music, and the ghost
of Freud himself, the play recounts a pivotal moment in gay history, while affirming
the power of the individual in the struggle for equality and human rights.