by Garry Williams • Halifax • 2025-04-22
Last summer I auditioned for Casey & Diana.
A celebrated play by award-winning Canadian playwright and actor Nick Green, the work was commissioned by the Stratford Festival and played at Soulpepper in Toronto. This was to be the East Coast premiere, directed by local theatre and music icon Richie Wilcox… and boy, is it queer!
The script’s a dazzler and a tear-jerker, filled with love and laughter. I was struck by its impact on the page; I ugly-cried. The text is fun, surprising, and incredibly well structured, packed with references to queer lives from brunch (“gay breakfast”) to cruising in Queens Park. It’s a basket of Easter eggs for pop culture aficionados from Golden Girls to The Wizard of Oz.
One of the characters, Thomas, an aging queen and titular Casey House resident the week of Diana’s game-changing visit in 1991. He is heroic, tragic, and camp. I thought if there was ever a role in the Neptune season I might be cast in, this was it. Turns out I was right.
I went out and bought a fangirly coffee table book about Diana as soon as I was cast. I visited Casey House, spoke with current staff and people who had been around at the time, queer folx, eyewitnesses, survivors. I learned about the dykes and drag queens who attended the dying. I listened to podcasts about Casey House; watched period TV shows, AIDS dramas, and documentaries; and read texts from the period. Iconoclast David Wojnarovicz became an instant favourite.
“I feel honoured to tell this powerful queer story right now, today, in
Halifax,” says Wilcox. “This beautiful script… allows us to see real human lives when we think about the AIDS crisis and not just statistics. Through Casey & Diana we recognize how all of us were affected and still are affected by the actions, and inactions, of others.”
As we started rehearsals, I thought of Wojnarovicz, Jacques Demy, Michael Bennett, Anthony Perkins, Freddie Mercury, Rock Hudson, Keith Haring, Robert Mapplethorpe and so many less celebrated figures lost to AIDS. The crisis was never the virus; it was the stigma.
The cast, a collection of multi-award winning actors, assembled to read the play: Susan Stackhouse as volunteer Marjorie; Koumbie as resident nurse Vera; the formidable Stephanie MacDonald as Pauline; and two excellent and well-cast actors from out of town, Alex Wierzbicki and Rebecca Gibian, as Andre and Princess Diana, respectively; and myself. It is humbling and affirming, every day a master class, to be working on this project with theatre royalty.
The work is difficult, but joyful; the scenes, demanding. Emotions run high. We keep Kleenex close during rehearsals, but the payoff, the feeling that we’re part of something really special, is great. In an unusually supportive and very queer room, our stage manager Kevin Olson and ASM Gina Thornhill bring unwavering cheerleader realness, and Zöe Comeau assists as Chrysalis director.
The work is difficult, but joyful; the scenes, demanding.
We got on stage last week… gay theatre heaven! Our celebrated design team includes: Diego Calvedon (costumes); Aaron Collier (sound); Leigh Ann Vardy (lighting); and Scott Penner (set). We marvel at the majestic interplay between all these elements, marked by poetic realism. A single cue makes us weep. We are in the presence of greatness.
With all the pieces falling into place, we are ready for opening night. The audience will be the crowning touch.
Casey & Diana runs April 22 - May 18. Tickets are on sale now, and can be purchased by contacting the Neptune Theatre Box Office at (902) 429-7070, or by visiting www.neptunetheatre.com.
