STREAMING THEATER
Making Space for Queer Black Voices
Standing tall at intersection of Gay Pride, Black Lives Matter
BY DAVID KENNERLEY
Donja R. Love is fi nally
having a moment. His
scorching drama, “One
in Two,” about queer
Black men coping with being HIVpositive,
was a bona fi de hit earlier
this season. But the modest New
Group production had a limited
run and was somewhat overshadowed
by splashier fare with bold
racial themes like “Slave Play” and
“A Strange Loop,” which went on
to win the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for
Drama.
On June 12, “One in Two” enjoyed
a revival of sorts. The play
landed a coveted primetime spot
in the Pride Plays festival and was
live streamed on Playbill.com, reshaped
for the Zoom format. The
superb original cast of Jamyl Dobson,
Edward Mawere, and Leland
Fowler reprised their roles. Malika
Oyetimein helmed the virtual production,
which doubled as a benefi
t for Broadway Cares/ Equity
Fights AIDS.
Not that being forced to produce
online was a drawback. The surreal
quality of the play, originally
staged in a vast white box, lends
itself nicely to multiple white boxes.
So does the interactive aspect,
since viewers were able to type
comments in real time. The play
holds up surprisingly well in this
format and has the potential to
reach a much wider audience.
The timing couldn’t be better.
This is LGBTQ Pride Month after
all, in the year we celebrate the
50th anniversary of the fi rst Pride
parade, the 1970 Christopher
Street Liberation Day March, a civil
rights protest. The piece centers
on a viral pandemic with striking
parallels to today’s COVID crisis.
And of course, given that America
and beyond are being galvanized
by the Black Lives Matter revolution,
Love’s voice is more vital than
ever.
The play’s title, as it happens, refers
to a little-known yet alarming
statistic from a 2016 study projecting
that one in two Black gay or bi
men will be diagnosed with HIV in
their lifetime. In contrast, only 1 in
11 of their white counterparts will
test positive.
Love thought the fi gure so preposterous
he decided to write an
absurdist tragicomedy about it.
“One in Two” is based on his own
harrowing experiences after testing
positive more than a decade
ago. This neglected segment of the
population deserves to have its
story told.
The award-winning playwright
was recently spotlighted in The
New Group’s online series, “Why We
Do it,” having a dialogue with his
mentor, queer Black rights activist
John-Martin Green, the creator of
a variety of theater initiatives. They
discussed Love’s impetus for writing
the play and the importance of
fostering community.
“I was diagnosed with HIV on
December 13, 2008,” Love said. “I
had to navigate through the stigma
that has been placed on me
and our community. I’m still navigating
through it.”
Green agreed that there are multiple
stigmas to overcome — being
queer, being HIV-positive, and being
a Black male. All while fi ghting
an intense self-loathing. The salvation
for both men was connecting
with like-minded individuals.
“I don’t know who I would be, I
don’t know where I would be, if it
were not for my community,” said
Love. “I’m speaking specifi cally to
my Black community, my queer
community, my HIV-positive community,
and my intersectional
Black queer HIV-positive community.”
According to Love, it was this
need for kinship that propelled
“One in Two” into the world. In December
2018, about 10 years after
he was diagnosed with HIV, he was
distressed to realize the depression
and shame had not only lingered
but was growing stronger.
That’s when he started writing
the play, recalling fraught scenarios
from his life — disclosure to
his ex-boyfriend and to his mother,
sloppy nights alone in gay bars,
➤ DONJA R.LOVE continued on p.69
THE NEW GROUP
Playwright Donja R. Love.
PHOTO PRIDE PLAYS
Edward Mawere (1), Jamyl Dobson (2), and Leland Fowler (3) in the Pride Plays Zoom production of
Donja R. Love’s “One in Two,” directed by Malika Oyetimein.
June 25- July 15, 2 56 020 | GayCityNews.com
/Playbill.com
/GayCityNews.com
