Status Update 
 Young, queer Black men fi ght against being defi ned by HIV 
 BY DAVID KENNERLEY 
 Playwright Donja R. Love  
 (“Sugar in Our Wounds”)  
 has a healthy obsession  
 with  numbers.  The  title  
 of his urgent, provocative drama,  
 “One  in  Two,”  refers  to  a  littleknown  
 yet alarming statistic from  
 a 2016 CDC study projecting that  
 one in two Black gay and bisexual  
 men will be diagnosed with HIV in  
 their lifetime. 
 Love, who is Black and has  
 wrestled with  the stigma of being  
 HIV-positive for more than a decade, 
  deemed this fi gure so shocking, 
   so  ludicrous,  he  decided  to  
 create an absurdist drama about  
 it. The piece draws not only from  
 his own deeply personal story but  
 also  experiences  of  others  in  his  
 community.  
 We can detect shades of Beckett,  
 for sure. Three young, queer Black  
 men are in a state of suspended  
 animation, a kind of purgatory, as  
 they sit  in a health clinic waiting  
 room listening for their number  
 to be called. They are, as you may  
 have guessed, wracked with dread  
 awaiting results of their HIV tests.  
 “I am not a number!” one of them  
 snarls.  
 The remainder of the play illustrates, 
  with caustic humor and  
 grace, just how dehumanizing being  
 poz can be for this often neglected  
 segment of the population. 
 Instead of having names, the men  
 are known as Number One, Number  
 Two, or Number Three, based  
 on the level of audience applause  
 at the top of the play. They even  
 don  shirts  emblazoned with  their  
 number so we can keep track. This  
 decision is fairly random, however,  
 since we know zilch about these  
 guys and have no basis for clapping  
 louder or softer. Perhaps this  
 is intended to echo the arbitrary  
 aspect of acquiring HIV.  
 In the performance I saw, the audience  
 chose actor Edward Mawere  
 to portray Number One (aka Donté)  
 who is HIV-positive. Jamyl Dobson  
 played the role of Number Two and  
 Leland Fowler was Number Three.  
 Donté appears to be a stand-in for  
 the playwright himself. 
 In  this  surreal,  nightmarish  
 realm, the three men act out  
 fraught scenarios from Donté’s life  
 — HIV disclosure to his ex-boyfriend  
 and to his mother, sloppy  
 nights alone in gay bars, attending  
 an HIV support group, coping  
 with debilitating side effects from  
 meds, and wild hookups with  
 dudes with screen handles like  
 TRADEHUNGLIKEAHORSE_99.  
 In one of the more affecting  
 scenes, Donté is dumbstruck upon  
 hearing that he indeed has contracted  
 HIV, despite the nurse’s  
 reassurance: “You can get through  
 this. Your status will not be the  
 most interesting thing about you.”  
 Those words were not enough to  
 calm his shame and self-loathing. 
 While all the performances are  
 fi rst-rate, I couldn’t help but marvel  
 at the versatility of Dobson, who  
 expertly juggled supporting roles  
 such  as  Donté’s  loving Mom,  the  
 hung hookup, and “Banjii Cunt at  
 the Center.” Fowler did a fi ne job of  
 tackling secondary roles like “Kinda  
 Ex-Boyfriend” with panache. 
 Which is even more astounding  
 when you realize that these actors  
 must master every role and every  
 line of dialogue. Remember, the  
 roles rotate each night based on  
 the whim of the audience.   
 Directed by Stevie Walker-Webb,  
 “One  in Two” offers a daring  take  
 on a subject rarely seen on a mainstream  
 stage. As Number One  
 states, “There are so many stories  
 of people dying from AIDS, but not  
 living with HIV.” 
 Arnulfo Maldonado has created  
 an ideal backdrop for this absurdist  
 enterprise.  It’s  an  all-white  
 “black box” which looks more like  
 a bathhouse steam room than a  
 waiting room, especially at the  
 start when the men silently lounge  
 around shirtless. The set contains  
 hidden drawers fi lled  with  props  
 and extensions that morph into a  
 liquor bar or a bed. 
 The set is topped by screens that  
 display large numbers increasing  
 during  the  course  of  the  90-minute  
 piece. These racing digits not  
 only signify the growing cases of  
 THEATER 
 Jamyl Dobson and Edward Mawere in Donja R. Love’s “One in Two,” directed by Stevie Walker-Webb at  
 at the Pershing Square Signature Center through January 12. 
 HIV diagnoses among Black queer  
 men,  they  also  suggest  that  time  
 marches on. The message couldn’t  
 be clearer — action must be taken  
 to blunt this hidden epidemic. And  
 the time is right now. 
   
 ONE IN TWO  | The New Group |  
 MONIQUE CARBONI  
 Pershing Square Signature Center,  
 480 W. 42nd St. | Through Jan.  
 12: Sun., Tue.- Fri. & Dec. 23 & 30  
 at 7:30 p.m.; Sat. at 8 p.m.; Sat. &  
 Sun. at 2 p.m.; no performances  
 Dec. 24-25, 31 & Jan.1 | $43-$123  
 at  thenewgroup.org | Ninety mins.,  
 with no intermission 
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