Beirut at Studio Stage

Would you die for love? If your lover or soul mate was infected with a contagious disease would you abandon them or stay beside them and possibly be infected yourself? These are the questions that Studio Theater West's production of "Beirut" unequivocally asks. Directed by Mark Freeman and performed by a stellar cast, Alan Bowne's "Beirut" is as timely and resonant today as it was when it was produced in the mid-1980's. A man infected with an unnamed disease is quarantined in the East Village, and his girlfriend breaks through security to be with him. They fight, rage, argue, and love. In order to protect her from the deadly virus, he asks her to leave. In order to love and care for him, she must stay. In this push/pull of love and survival, "Beirut" vibrates with intensity, dark humor, love, sensuality and heart break. Once recognized as an allegory for the AIDS epidemic, "Beirut" is as relevant today as the recent outbreak of the Ebola virus attests. It is a star-crossed love story as timeless as Romeo and Juliet or West Side Story: Love prohibited; love in chains; a real-life "kiss of death".