The Night Larry Kramer Kissed Me

The Night Larry Kramer Kissed Me is a semi-autobiographical, one-man show, written by Obie-winning actor and playwright David Drake. Broken up into a series of stories, Drake abstractly documents a gay man's journey of self-discovery, while also addressing the AIDS crisis that plagued the community in the 1980s.

Not only is The Night Larry Kramer Kissed Me a one-man show, but it also appears to follow the journey of just one character. Despite its autobiographical nature, this nameless character is referred to only as "performer" in the script.

The performer is portrayed at many different stages in life, from childhood, to adolescence, to adulthood, and travels through his personal timeline, from past, to present, to future. Many other characters from the performer's life are mentioned, and sometimes briefly mimicked, but only as they relate to the stories of the performer.

In Part One of The Birthday Triptych, the performer recounts his first experience with the theater on the night of his sixth birthday, the same night of The Stonewall Riots, June 27, 1969. He recalls sitting on the edge of his seat during a community theater performance of West Side Story, rapt by the excitement unfolding before him.

In this story's second chapter, the performer describes his 16th birthday, attending a downtown Baltimore performance of A Chorus Line with another boy, Tim. He alternates from describing his admiration for Tim and his admiration for the show, eventually recounting the car ride home, during which he cries as he explains to Tim that he is like "that Puerto Rican boy in the show". After coming out to Tim, they kiss, but are caught by the performer's parents. Part Two ends with parental accusations of whether or not the performer's sexuality is a phase, as he eventually concludes that New York is the only place for people like him.

The triptych ends with a retelling of the performer's 22nd birthday. On June 27, 1985, he attends a performance of The Normal Heart, the autobiographical play by activist and playwright Larry Kramer. The performer explains that the kiss he intended to witness, the performed, on stage kiss, was not the "kiss" he walked away with. Instead, this "kiss" was the igniting of a passion and anger that was ever-present during the AIDS crisis of the time. He recalls this "kiss" as the motivation of his in-the-streets activism, his finally joining the fight against AIDs, and against the world that was not addressing it themselves.

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