Read The Normal Heart and The Destiny of Me: Two Plays for Free Online

Did you see that guy in there’s spots?
    MICKEY: You don’t have those. Do you?
    CRAIG: No.
    MICKEY: Then you don’t have anything to worry about.
    CRAIG: She said they can be inside you, too.
    MICKEY: They’re not inside you.
    CRAIG: They’re inside me.
    MICKEY: Will you stop! Why are you convinced you’re sick?
    CRAIG: Where’s Bruce? He’s supposed to be here. I’m so lucky to have such a wonderful lover. I love Bruce so much, Mickey. I know something’s wrong.
    MICKEY: Craig, all you’ve come for is some test results. Now stop being such a hypochondriac.
    CRAIG: I’m tired all the time. I wake up in swimming pools of sweat. Last time she felt me and said I was swollen. I’m all swollen, like something ready to explode. Thank you for coming with me, you’re a good friend. Excuse me for being such a mess, Ned. I get freaked out when I don’t feel well.
    MICKEY: Everybody does.
    ( DAVID
comes out of
EMMA’
s office. There are highly visible purple lesions on his face. He wears a long-sleeved shirt. He goes to get his jacket, which he’s left on one of the chairs.
)
    DAVID: Whoever’s next can go in.
    CRAIG: Wish me luck.
    MICKEY: (
Hugging
CRAIG .) Good luck.
    ( CRAIG
hugs him, then
NED ,
and goes into
EMMA’
s office.
)
    DAVID: They keep getting bigger and bigger and they don’t go away. (
To
NED .) I sold you a ceramic pig once at Maison France on Bleecker Street. My name is David.
    NED: Yes, I remember. Somebody I was friends with then collects pigs and you had the biggest pig I’d ever seen outside of a real pig.
    DAVID: I’m her twenty-eighth case and sixteen of them are dead. (
He leaves.
)
    NED: Mickey, what the fuck is going on?
    MICKEY: I don’t know. Are you here to write about this?
    NED: I don’t know. What’s wrong with that?
    MICKEY: Nothing, I guess.
    NED: What about you? What are you going to say? You’re the one with the health column.
    MICKEY: Well, I’ll certainly write about it in the
Native,
but I’m afraid to put it in the stuff I write at work.
    NED: What are you afraid of?
    MICKEY: The city doesn’t exactly show a burning interest in gay health. But at least I’ve still got my job: the Health Department has had a lot of cutbacks.
    NED: How’s John?
    MICKEY: John? John who?
    NED: You’ve had so many I never remember their last names.
    MICKEY: Oh, you mean John. I’m with Gregory now. Gregory O’Connor.
    NED: The old gay activist?
    MICKEY: Old? He’s younger than you are. I’ve been with Gregory for ten months now.
    NED: Mickey, that’s very nice.
    MICKEY: He’s not even Jewish. But don’t tell my rabbi.
    CRAIG: (
Coming out of
EMMA’
s office.
) I’m going to die. That’s the bottom line of what she’s telling me. I’m so scared. I have to go home and get my things and come right back and check in. Mickey, please come with me. I hate hospitals. I’m going to die. Where’s Bruce? I want Bruce.
    ( MICKEY
and
CRAIG
leave.
DR. EMMA BROOKNER
comes in from her office. She is in a motorized wheelchair. She is in her mid-to-late thirties.
)
    EMMA: Who are you?
    NED: I’m Ned Weeks. I spoke with you on the phone after the
Times
article.
    EMMA: You’re the writer fellow who’s scared. I’m scared, too. I hear you’ve got a big mouth.
    NED: Is big mouth a symptom?
    EMMA: No, a cure. Come on in and take your clothes off.
    (
Lights up on an examining table, center stage.
NED
starts to undress.
)
    NED: Dr. Brookner, what’s happening?
    EMMA: I don’t know.
    NED: In just a couple of minutes you told two people I know something. The article said there isn’t any cure.
    EMMA: Not even any good clues yet. And even if they found out tomorrow what’s happening, it takes years to find out how to cure and prevent anything. All I know is this disease is the most insidious killer I’ve ever seen or studied or heard about. And I think we’re seeing only the tip of the iceberg. And I’m afraid it’s on the rampage. I’m frightened nobody important is going to