“AIDS isn’t that big of a problem anymore”

I’ve just watched an interview and heard the above statement being made by a girl who is currently rehearsing for an upcoming (amateur) production of “RENT” and I cannot believe my ears. My jaw literally dropped when I heard those words come out of her mouth. HIV/AIDS awareness is a cause which is very important to me and “RENT” is one of my favourite shows – partly for that reason. I am appalled by the thought of someone with that opinion playing a main part in this show.

For those who don’t know “RENT” is a rock opera (based on an opera which is based on a novel) focused on a group of seven friends living in New York, four of them are living with AIDS and (SPOILER ALERT) one of them dies. It deals with many other issues, such as: love, loss, poverty, drug use and friendship. However, this show is credited with improving awareness of HIV/AIDS and also educates people about living with the disease – my favourite thing about the original production is that it dispels the stereotypes many have about the “type of people” who have AIDS as the 4 characters with it differ in gender; ethnicity and sexuality. It is a powerful show which has a strong message and is of high educational value, so to have someone who is, not only taking part in the show but is playing a main character and claiming it is her “dream come true” say that “AIDS isn’t that big of a problem anymore” is utterly disgusting!

In 2010 there were 1.8million deaths due to AIDS and 2.7million people were diagnosed HIV+ (roughly 390,000 of which were children) [1] - while these numbers are an improvement on previous years it is still a large amount of people. The words, “not that big of a problem” cause me to wonder how many deaths are needed before it is a big problem. One person kills another and it’s a massive problem, so why is a disease allowed to take the lives of millions and still get shrugged off? I am furious that this girl is proclaiming her love for “RENT” whilst not understanding the importance of a main theme and would rather focus on the “love and loss” that is portrayed. Yes, those are two other major themes in the show but it is not why it is so successful – there are plenty of novels, plays, musicals, songs, operas etc. about love and loss, “RENT” is different. “RENT” shows the impact AIDS has on the lives of the people who have it and those who care about them. It shows the symptoms they deal with and gives insight into how they cope day-to-day by featuring a support group in some of the scenes. “RENT” also shows the isolation some people have to deal with when they are diagnosed – for example when Roger is surprised that Angel is going to the support group on Christmas Day and Angel says, “some people don’t have anywhere else to go today”. So to sit there and publicly declare your love for a show; to call it your dream and dismiss a very important (to some people, the most important) element of the show is unbelievably ignorant and just goes to show you how poorly educated some people are on the issue.

Even though I’ve been referring to this one girl’s comments I do not place all of the blame on her. As pointed out to me by a friend, the director of the show should have set aside some time to educate his cast on the issues raised in the show – either by researching it himself and discussing it with them or getting someone to come and speak about it – I happen to know there is a branch of Gay Men’s Health less than 15 minutes away from their rehearsal space and the volunteers there would have been more than happy to help in someway. If, for what ever reason, the director did not want to do this then he should have edited out that comment – the video interview of this girl had music and images added to it, anyone with any amount of common sense should have realised that a comment like “AIDS isn’t that big of a problem anymore” would cause offence; spark outrage and (from a purely professional point of view) reduce ticket sales to his production.

Comments and criticisms are welcome. Thanks for reading.

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[1] http://www.unaids.org/en/media/unaids/contentassets/documents/unaidspublication/2011/jc2216_worldaidsday_report_2011_en.pdf