‘The Normal Heart’ in flawless, anguish-filled revival at Arena Stage

“The Normal Heart” recounts the early ’80s in New York, as Breen’s Ned, a writer, attempts to spur gay men to political action, through the AIDS activism of the Gay Men’s Health Crisis (a group Kramer co-founded). It’s a portrait of the cross-currents of gay life as Ned sees them, with regard to the forces causing the disease to spread: the ingrained prejudices of straight society toward homosexuality, and the reluctance of gay men, just beginning to explore the boundaries of sexual liberation, to give up that freedom to stop the contagion.

“The only way we’ll have real pride is when we demand recognition of a culture that isn’t just sexual,” Ned declares in his despairing summation, as the group he’s nurtured, fed up with his harangues, votes him out. What humanizes Ned for us, softens his hyper-abrasiveness, is his love affair with Felix (a smashing and ultimately endearing Luke Macfarlane), a New York Times fashion writer who seems to have it all, and then loses it all to sickness.

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Wolfe never lets us forget that this is not only drama, but also history. On the white walls of David Rockwell’s stirring scenery are carved inscriptions of emblematic words and phrases from the days when AIDS entered our vocabulary, terms such as Patient Zero and pneumocystis pneumonia. The set could even be the blueprint for a memorial.

The words that resound with the most emotion, however, materialize in projections on the walls that intermittently become screens for the names of the actual dead. In an echo of the themes of Randy Shilts’s nonfiction account of the crisis, “And the Band Played On,” the honor roll of the AIDS dead grows and grows over the two hours of “The Normal Heart,” dying proof that little is being done.

The living proof is in the emphatic performances, starting with Breen, who tempers Ned’s obnoxious self-righteousness with layers of warmth and integrity. Wettig is a sensational successor to Barkin; the control that medical authority confers transforms into an unhinged outrage as Wettig’s Emma looks upon her own futility. Berresse, known primarily for work in musicals, is here a revelation. And in other key turns, Christopher J. Hanke and John Procaccino develop textured portrayals for, respectively, an AIDS volunteer and Ned’s loving if conflicted older brother.

You come to understand in the naked fury of “The Normal Heart” that the voices of history can, in fact, feel as if they are speaking directly to you. And in Wolfe’s wrenchingly devastating treatment, the ghosts speak loudest of all.

 The Normal Heart

by Larry Kramer. Directed by George C. Wolfe. Sets, David Rockwell; costumes,

Martin Pakledinaz; lighting, David Weiner;

sound and original music, David van Tieghem; projections, Batwin + Robin Productions.

With Chris Dinolfo, Tom Berklund, Jon Levenson. About 2 hours, 10 minutes.

Through July 29 at Arena Stage,

1101 Sixth St. SW. Call 202-488-3300

or visit www.arenastage.org.