An “independent affiliated event of the 20th International AIDS Conference”, Live With It walks the blurred line between soapbox and performance. Moreover, it attempts the tricky balancing of the plaintive outpourings of its “real life” participants with a carefully thought through aesthetic.
Ostensibly, this is more seminar than show. The participants are people directly affected by HIV, from surviving siblings to former activists and those whose brush with the virus is more physical.
As each story unfolds we’re ushered into an intimate mosaic of lived experience. In this, the often lurid spectre of AIDS/HIV is understood in purely human terms.Rather than an assemblage of case studies, Live With It bears all the hallmarks of artistic consideration. There’s a noticeable restraint and a level of contemplative slowness that allows the audience time to absorb. Indeed, the stage/audience barrier is broken on numerous occasions, as this event is also about reaching out, connecting the ‘idea’ of HIV with the reality of life on an individual, family scale. Although it’s a principally male representation, it’s a world containing joy and survival, not mere scare, imbued as it with a subtle delicacy of touch – a timely and probably unique window into the ordinary world of HIV.
Arts House, Meat Market to 27 Jul
