Embracing 'Casey and Diana'

Drama forced actor to re-engage with fear of AIDS era

- GLENN SUMI

Actor Sean Arbuckle stars in "Casey and Diana" at Soulpepper Theatre's Young Centre for the Performing Arts. He says he's excited Toronto audiences will be able to see the play about Princess Diana's visit to AIDS hospice Casey House in 1991.

Actor Sean Arbuckle has a confession to make.

The veteran of more than 20 seasons at the Stratford Festival says that when he first began reading Nick Green’s moving drama “Casey and Diana,” his first reaction was, “Oh no, not another AIDS play.”

He quickly discovered that the work, inspired by Princess Diana’s historic visit to Toronto AIDS Hospice Casey House in 1991, wasn’t about contracting AIDS or lobbying governments to recognize a health emergency. He also realized that his gut response came from a deeply personal place.

“I think I had internalized a lot of shame and fear from that time,” said Arbuckle on a recent Zoom call before the play — which sold out its run last summer at Stratford — transfers to Soulpepper next week.

“Back in the mid to late ’80s and ’90s there were a lot of works about the gay experience that were concerned with the emergency of the AIDS epidemic. Artists needed to get the story in front of the public because they were being ignored by governments, and there was a real urgency to them,” he said about plays and films like “The Normal Heart,” “As Is” and “Longtime Companion.”