SHOUTS AND WHISPERS
But Edward Parone is not, judging by his adaptation, also called The Way We Live Now. This word-heavy, sometimes soporific one-act–one of two in Lifeline Theatre’s “Shouts and Whispers”–never allows us to forget that behind it stands Susan Sontag. But what you’d never glean from Parone’s muffed effort is what an extraordinary and moving short story “The Way We Live Now” is. Originally published in the New Yorker in November of 1987, and later anthologized in The Best Short Stories of 1987, Sontag’s story reports from the point of view of an unnamed third-person narrator the various quips, opinions, and fears of a group of 26 friends and acquaintances (“one for every letter of the alphabet”), all of them desperately concerned with a mutual unnamed friend suffering from AIDS.
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
At one moment Shilts (played superbly by Steve Totland) addresses the audience directly, recounting his experiences promoting his book And the Band Played On: “I am an AIDS talk-show jukebox,” he explains. “All the talk-show hosts like my answers because they’re short, punchy, and to the point.” The next moment Shilts takes a seat behind a microphone and shows us what it’s like to field infuriatingly ignorant questions about AIDS. (“What if [a] gay waiter took my salad back into the kitchen and ejaculated into my salad dressing?” ran one of the more amazing questions. “Could I get AIDS then?”)
