The Clinical Stage: Theatrical Resistance and the Redefinition of Stigmatized Subjectivity in the AIDS Crisis, New York (1980–2000)

• Salman Tahir

  Author

The emergence of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) in the 1980s triggered a profound crisis of public health and social identity, particularly within New York City's gay male community. The failure of state and medical institutions to acknowledge or adequately address the epidemic created a vacuum of information and compassion, which the theatre immediately filled. This paper propose that performance, specifically AIDS-themed theatre in New York from 1980 to 2000, did not merely raise awareness; it fundamentally served as a radical form of resistance to the institutional and disciplinary practices of the medical establishment. Applying the theoretical framework of Michel Foucault’s The Birth of the Clinic, the stage became a counter-clinic, a space where playwrights, performers, and activists deconstructed the "medical gaze" and rejected the pathologizing of homosexual identity. Through works by Robert Chesley and Larry Kramer, and the later integration into mainstream platforms, the theatre actively challenged the power/knowledge structures that labeled AIDS the "gay plague." This theatrical movement ultimately forced a crucial societal repositioning of homosexuality, transitioning from a marginalized, clinically suspect identity to a visible, politically engaged, and tragic, yet resilient, fixture within the national imaginary. This analysis suggests the stage was the necessary crucible for the community’s political and cultural survival against institutional negligence.

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