Gay playwright J. Julian Christopher is well aware that his new play, Animals Commit Suicide, is bound to be controversial. That's because it deals with "bug-catching," a slang term for gay men who deliberately want to become infected with HIV, which causes AIDS.
"I didn't know what [bug catching] was until I found out that someone I knew was seeking infection," said Christopher during an interview last month in Chicago. "I didn't understand it so I wrote a play about it so I could try to."
Animals Commit Suicide centers on Chance Stevens, a Caucasian gay man in his late 20s with a steady job who wants to contract HIV. Through the course of the play, Chance attends underground bug-catching sex parties, shares illegal drugs and lies about his HIV-negative status on a dating website for HIV-positive gay men in order to get close to a handsome baker named Ethan.
"When I'm curious about something, I write about it, and I'm very much curious about queer subcultures and where they come from," said Christopher. He pointed to one of his earlier plays about gay men with body image issues called Man Boobs, which was previously staged in Chicago by Pride Films and Plays in 2012. Christopher said Man Boobs grew out the fact that he himself identifies as a "bear" in within the gay community.
Christopher is coy on what exactly motivates Chance to seek out HIV so as not to spoil the play's dramatic surprises. Yet he did mention a number of psychologies about why someone would want to bug chase, including survivor's guilt, self-loathing or even just a desire to become infected on one's own terms.
"I don't explore this in the play so much, but what's happening in New York City and a lot of other places is that homeless LGBTQ teens are seeking HIV to survive," Christopher said. "Because they can get housing and medical help because a lot of them have been kicked out of their homes."
Christopher had originally set Animals Commit Suicide in his hometown of New York. But he switched the locale to Chicago when the four-year-old First Floor Theater acquired the rights to present the play's world premiere.
Animals Commit Suicide is also a contemporary play, so Christopher made certain that some mention was made during the course of the play about PrEP ( pre-exposure prophylaxis ), which is now available for HIV-negative people to take to reduce the risk of infection.
"But even with PrEP, there is this idea that there's a shame involved if you are having sex that is not protected. It's still prevalent," said Christopher, noting that many people like himself in their late 30s still can remember when safer sex warnings were made about HIV and AIDS in the 1990s.
"There's a lot of themes being touched upon and it's not necessarily just bug-chasing per se. There's also the use of crystal meth and how that's being used in gay culture," Christopher said. "No one's talking about it and that's the problem. Larry Kramer said it best, that silence equals death. He was saying that to talk about AIDS, but if we're going to sit there and pretend that crystal meth is not an issue in the gay community because it's our dirty laundry, then they'll still be hooked on it."
Due to the controversial nature of the play, artistic director Hutch Pimentel said that First Floor Theater had reached out to queer health organizations to bring them into the conversation. He also said that talkback sessions were planned after select performances.
"We want to provide resources for people if they are interested in discussing it afterwards," said Pimentel, though he added that he didn't want things to come off as public service announcements. "If people want information, we want to make sure that they can get it."
But when called to check up on First Floor Theater's outreach efforts, a representative from the AIDS Foundation of Chicago declined to comment because the play hadn't begun performances, so it was an unknown on how bug catching was going to be dealt with. Also, voicemail messages left with Howard Brown Health Center regarding outreach efforts tied to Animals Commit Suicide were not returned before deadline.
When asked if he was concerned about showing an unflattering side of the LGBTQ community in Animals Commit Suicide, Christopher mentioned that he has already lost some friends who felt that he shouldn't be touching upon the play's many controversial topics.
"People who are close to me should know me, that I'm not trying to sensationalize. And if they don't, then I don't have time for them," Christopher said. "I don't want to sound arrogant, but at the same time, I don't create theater to make friends or to be 'easy.' There's enough theater out there that is like that, so I'd rather examine stuff that is not easy and things that we don't talk about: the stories that I have not seen because people shy away from them."
First Floor Theater's world-premiere production of Animals Commit Suicide plays two 8 p.m. previews on Friday and Saturday, Nov. 13 and 14, with an official press opening at 6 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 15, at Collaboraction's Room 300 in the Flat Iron Arts Building, 1579 N. Milwaukee Ave. The regular run through Saturday, Dec. 12, is 8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays ( no show Nov. 26; extra shows Nov. 23 and Dec. 3 ).
Tickets are $20; visit www.firstfloortheater.com for tickets and more information.
