Moving: Tom Conroy and Danny Ball in Holding the Man. Photo: Brett Boardman
Eighteen years after it premiered at The Stables in 2006 (after which it had runs all around Australia, including the Opera House, then in London’s West End and was made into a film), Tommy Murphy’s adaptation of Timothy Conigrave’s 1995 memoir Holding the Man is back, showing at Belvoir Street under the direction of Eamon Flack.
Set during the heights of the AIDS/HIV epidemic, it has become one of Australia’s great love stories. Conigrave’s memoir was written for and about John Coleo, the man he loved for more than half his life until John’s AIDS-related death at the age of 31.
Tim and John (played here by Tom Conroy and Danny Ball) meet at high school in the 1970s. Tim is in the school production of Romeo and Juliet; John is captain of the football team and wants to play for Essendon. It is an all boys school, run by Jesuits – not the ideal place to kindle a relationship that will endure for 15 years despite parental and societal disapproval – but Tim and John are destined to be each other’s soulmate. Star cross’d, indeed.
This update of Holding the Man comes at a time when AIDS is no longer the absolute death sentence it once was and in this production Belvoir, as is often its wont, gives full rein to the joyous elements of the story. The set (by Stephen Curtis) with its retro wallpaper and disco balls, has some front-row audience members sitting on old sofas. In Act 1, the atmosphere is playful and full of wonder, from two small boys watching on TV as men land on the moon, to plays within plays and the wonderful awkwardness of adolescent love.
The supporting cast of Russell Dykstra, Rebecca Massey, Shannen Alyce Quan and Guy Simon add to the fun, running on and off stage or ducking behind sofas, changing wigs and costumes in a flash to become characters as disparate as horny teens to disapproving fathers and flamboyant mothers, all the way through to stony-faced medicos delivering HIV test results. They all deserve a mention for superb performances, but it is Conroy as Tim who is the star of this show. He exudes boyish charm, enthusiasm, a lust for life that is both selfish and wonderfully human; he is lovable, he is flawed but he is honest and he loves John. Who loves him right back, in a more solid and stoic way. Ball’s John is quieter, more conservative, more dependable, perhaps a little sad. His parents, in particular his father (both sets of parents are played by Dykstra and Massey), cannot (or will not) come to terms with their son’s disappointing sexuality.
Act 2, as you would expect after the news of contracting HIV is received, is more sombre, but not as sombre as one might expect. Some of the most moving elements seemed a little brief. The scene in which Tim tells his mother that he thinks it was he who has given John AIDS is heart-wrenching, but not dwelt upon.
Similarly, I found the scene of John’s death, both moving and annoying. The hoist, used to such great effect in the opening scene when two small boys are watching a man land on the moon was magical in a very Belvoir way, but the mechanics of hoisting a dying John aloft interrupted the sad gravity of those moments.
Nonetheless, Holding the Man is a moving and absolute love story, of the tragic kind, and Flack’s production reminds us of that, and of the devastating and dehumanising effect of AIDS in the 1980s and ’90s, which affected so many of those we knew. It is well worth seeing.
Holding the Man runs at Belvoir St theatre until 14 April
Tickets $39 to $95; belvoir.com.au
