The American theater has wrestled with the specter of AIDS in all manner of plays, from the emotionally direct (As Is) to the phantasmagoric (Angels in America). Curiously, we have not had a great many plays on the subject come here from other countries. While the disease is the same everywhere, it's reasonable to assume that artists from other cultures might naturally bring a different attitude to its devastation. Consider one particular French playwright...

While AIDS is never mentioned in the U.S. premiere of Only the End of the World by the late Jean-Luc Lagarce, its presence is palpable. The author wrote this clearly autobiographical work four years after he was diagnosed with the di[...]