By Dave
Link: https://www.actorscentre.co.uk/theatre-on-demand/moment-of-grace/about
Available until: Sunday 16th May
I’ve never been a big fan of Diana, Princess of Wales. I didn’t really get what all the fuss was about but from watching this film, I have discovered what she did for AIDS victims and the general perception of them and… yes she made mistakes as we all do and she made them publicly but in 1987, she raised awareness and understanding at a time when the world really needed to understand AIDS better. I think that was really important and a really positive, helpful and groundbreaking way of using her celebrity status and her popularity. I can think of a few young people who could learn from that. Anyone can attach their name to a cause, not everyone is willing to go the extra mile and get properly involved.
I’m sure it was great for Diana too but if she even helped one person that day – and it sounds like she helped a lot more than one person – she did a good, helpful and necessary thing which probably did a lot not just for the perception of AIDS but the perception of homosexuality. I’m not going to become her biggest fan but she did a good thing that day.
Backstory Ensemble’s production is sensitive, informative and brilliant. It’s based on a play by Bren Gosling (who also serves as executive producer) and it has three major characters: an AIDS victim, a nurse and a father who is estranged from his gay son. Other characters are mentioned and the Princess of Wales appears in video clips with patients from the real hospitals but the stories are told in a series of monologues by three characters, the narrative switching back and forth between them, giving three very different points of view.
Because of the pandemic, the actors filmed their own scenes on mobile phones, with direction from Nicky Alpress, who has, with the help of editor Paul Coleman, turned this into a complete piece of theatre which never feels like three actors’ work spliced together. Although the actors don’t meet, the play (or maybe it’s more of a film) feels connected and whole. The standard of the acting and the filming is very high and it never feels like three people talking into their phones. It feels like a patient, a nurse and a father telling their stories.
There are other great plays about AIDS. I’m a big fan of The Inheritance and Angels in America, two plays which both have something very valuable to say. But it’s a big subject and there are so many ways of looking at it and acknowledging it and helping people to understand. There is room in the theatres and on our screens for a lot of different stories. Moment of Grace feels more like a documentary than a play but it has a clear and very emotionally involving narrative, interesting characters… it’s exactly the right way to tell this story.
There are some ideas expressed in this film which aren’t nice to hear and which most people would disagree with now but I think it’s really important to make the play believable for 1987. The general attitudes of people towards homosexuality aren’t great but they were part of life at that time and I think cutting it out would be doing a disservice to the real people who are represented by these fictional characters as it wouldn’t be a complete representation of what life was like.
A lot of the negative opinions come from Donnie, a firefighter who has struggled with the idea of having a gay son and has no contact with him. Andrew Paul gives a very honest and direct performance which doesn’t try to play down his character’s words. It’s horrible but at the same time it’s a great performance and a really good example of the fact that not everyone who behaves in a horrible way is completely bad. Donnie is very wrong where homosexuality is concerned but in other ways he’s a good man. I think one area where a lot of people go wrong nowadays is the way they instantly reject anyone who has a wrong idea. They don’t see the goodness in them and recognise it as a sign that it might be possible for them to change their minds. They’re branded as bad people and that’s it. They’re ‘cancelled’ as people say now. Donnie says a lot of things which I completely disagree with but he also says things which make me feel… maybe there’s hope.
And think about it. Would we come as far as we have now with such a great increase in understanding if we’d cancelled every person who put a foot wrong?
Lucy Walker-Evans plays Jude, a nurse on the AIDS ward. Lucy gives her quiet courageousness, along with genuine kindness and empathy. She’s courageous not because of the specific job she does but because she is basically giving end of life care which would be at least as tough on this ward as any other and because she’s going against the general beliefs of society in working there at all. AIDS was a taboo and you had to be careful even about admitting where you worked.
Luke Dayhill plays Andrew, an AIDS patient who’s open about the struggles he faces, physically and psychologically. It’s a really moving performance of courage, fear, acceptance, sadness… the emotions are right there to hear in Luke’s voice and see on his face. The writing feels sensitive and respectful to AIDS patients and so does Luke’s performance.
Moment of Grace isn’t an easy one to watch but I
really do recommend it.
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