S.F. TROUPE FIGHTS AIDS WITH SHOW

Theatre Rhinoceros has been calling public attention to the devastating impact of AIDS through humor, introspection and song for almost two years.

Tonight at 8, the San Francisco-based troupe will bring its collection of songs, scenes and monologues to UC Irvine’s Fine Arts Village Theatre. Called “Unfinished Business,” the production incorporates a wide range of viewpoints on AIDS. Its flexible format of 23 vignettes allows the cast to adjust the length and emphasis of the show to suit the needs of the audience--whether at a Kiwanis club, college campus or hospital auditorium.

“Unfinished Business” is composed entirely of original material written by Bay Area artists with the exception of a Stephen Sondheim song, “Not a Day Goes By” from “Merrily We Roll Along,” which the composer donated for use in the show.

The material strikes a strong chord wherever it plays, said co-director Doug Holsclaw, a stand-up comic who joined the original production as a contributor and performer in 1984.

“I’ve been amazed that whether we’re in Boston or Denver or San Diego, the crowds laugh at the same jokes, and they cry in the same places,” he said. “And although the show deals basically with the gay community and gay people and people surrounding them responding to the crisis, we’re basically dealing with feelings of fear and death and sexuality, which are pretty universal.”

Tonight’s performance will benefit the UCI AIDS Education project, a student organization sponsorsing programs on campus to share information about the disease.

Acquired immune deficiency syndrome is transmitted through body fluids and destroys the body’s immune system. Those at highest risk include homosexual and bisexual men and intravenous drug users.

Out-of-town audiences tend to respond more strongly to the humor in the show, Holsclaw said, while San Francisco audiences tend to be more moved by its poignancy.

“I think that partially, it’s a very real experience for people in San Francisco. And people in other communities that haven’t been as hard hit can be a little more detached in viewing it as a piece of theater,” he said.

Although the show intentionally presents disparate viewpoints, Holsclaw sees one overriding theme: people coping, each in his or her own way.

“It’s not a passive show. It shows people meeting the crisis and dealing with it. And it doesn’t always show them dealing with it in a positive way,” he added.

The founder of Theatre Rhinoceros, Allan Estes, coined the group’s name from the reputation of the rhinoceros as a mild and peace-loving creature until it is provoked.

Estes conceived the idea of a show dealing with AIDS in early 1984, envisioning a street theater piece to be performed during the June, 1984, Democratic convention in San Francisco.

When the disease claimed Estes’ own life in May, 1984, director Leland Moss was brought in to pull the production together. He placed newspaper ads seeking actors, writers, artists and musicians interested in developing a performance piece dealing with AIDS, and the results became “The AIDS Show: Artists Involved with Death and Survival.”

The show debuted in September, 1984, and has been running ever since, both in San Francisco and on the road, in a variety of condensed and expanded versions.

A year and a half into the run, participants decided that some of the scenes had become dated and new issues had arisen that were not being addressed, such as concerns about the role of prostitution in the spread of the disease.

The show was revamped and retitled “Unfinished Business,” representing the unfinished business of finding a cure and the lives affected by the disease.

Although the purpose of “Unfinished Business” is to educate as well as entertain, Holsclaw said the show also has therapeutic value.

“When we were in Denver last week, a man came up to me and said his lover had died a year ago, and this was the first time he’d been able to laugh about the subject,” Holsclaw said. “And we’re constantly getting letters from people who’ve lost loved ones telling how the show helped them in dealing with their own feelings.”