Stories don’t just reflect the world; they change it. As they bring David Drake’s queer classic to Seven Dials Playhouse this February, Hive North reflects on art as activism.
There’s a reason authoritarians ban books and starve theatres. Stories create memory; memory creates movements. Larry Kramer knew this. The Normal Heart did not ask politely. It demanded. It turned grief into fuel and urgency into action, making audiences sit up and pay attention. That same spark lit David Drake’s The Night Larry Kramer Kissed Me, a fast, funny, furious monologue that threads coming-of-age, sex, shame, solidarity and big, messy love.
At Hive North, we’ve always believed theatre is a force for good. It’s a place where stories bring people together and move us to act, and our work sits at the junction of art and action: from #BeMoreMartyn: The Boy with the Deirdre Tattoo, a celebration of a life that refused to be reduced to a headline, to Jock Night, a play that refused to look away. It’s political because queer lives are political.
“Words are weapons,” said Gabriel Clark, the actor taking on the only role in the upcoming production of David Drake’s classic monologue, The Night Larry Kramer Kissed Me at Seven Dials Playhouse, (17th February to 1st March). “The right artist has the ability to find the right words that can wake people up to injustice, rally people to stand together, to act up, to fight back.”
When Gabriel speaks of words as weapons, he’s talking about the night when a performance sparks an audience into action, leaving them ready to write to an MP, donate, march or volunteer. The legacy of ACT UP isn’t a museum piece; it’s an instruction manual. In a climate where trans rights are pitted against women’s rights, where Section 28’s ghost still rattles the curriculum, where HIV stigma lurks behind lazy headlines, we need art that refuses to be respectable.
We know some will ask whether a 1990s monologue can still speak to 2026. Our answer is that it has to, because the issues haven’t vanished; they’ve evolved. The conversation around PrEP and prevention has moved, but health inequalities still exist. Chemsex harms remain entangled with shame and isolation. Queer youth still navigate school systems that don’t consistently see them. The lesson of Kramer and Drake isn’t to relive their moment; it’s to adapt their tactics.
We’re proud to bring the show to London during LGBT History Month. History matters because memory is political, so come to Seven Dials, share the night and leave braver. In the exchange between audience and actor, in the kiss passed from Kramer to Drake to Gabriel to you, change becomes not just possible, but inevitable.
Click here to book tickets now
The Night Larry Kramer Kissed Me, Tuesday 17th
February to Sunday 1st March, Seven Dials Theatre,
1A Tower Street, WC2H 9NP
Nearest Station: Leicester Square
