Friendship: A Love Story

This solo performance piece is the autobiographical story of a traumatized young woman forming connection and trust with a best friend whose love permanently changed her life before he died from AIDS in the 1990s. It uses the Welsh concept of Cynefin, the person with whom you most trust with who you are in the world. Their handwritten letters to each other over many years are used to illustrate this piece about the endurance of love, When Brett comes into the main character’s life, as college students, Jo-Anne is introduced to the notion of opening up, of bravery. Of taking risks. Brett coaxes Jo-Anne out of her shell. She wears Brett’s own clothes for years, still shielding herself under someone else’s existence. Brett and Jo-Anne love each other and he is there to help Jo-Anne transform. Until he is gone. This theater piece is about the bravery to come out sexually, personally, intellectually, and ethically. To take up space. To take the stage. And to face impending death. A crucial scene is when Brett tells Jo-Anne he is HIV-positive in a time within the AIDS crisis that spells certain death. Twenty years after Brett’s death, the main character goes to clean out his belongings from the family garage finds her own letters to Brett which he had saved. Her revelation follows. The audience can expect to be moved by the sadness and trauma in this story while revisiting meaning in their own key friendships.