Alan Bowne 5026539 217420953 2008-06-05T23:21:01Z Cydebot 1215485 Robot - Moving category AIDS-related LGBT deaths to AIDS-related deaths per [[WP:CFD|CFD]] at [[Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Log/2008 May 25]]. '''Alan Bowne''' ([[1945]]-[[1989]]) was an [[United States|American]] [[playwright]] and [[author]]. He was a member of the [[New Dramatists]]. He wrote a number of plays including ''Beirut'', ''Forty-Deuce'', ''Sharon and Billy'', and ''The Beany and Cecil Show'', many of which are available from [[Broadway Play Publishing Inc.]]. He also wrote one novel ''Wally Wonderstruck''. He died of [[AIDS]] at the age of forty four. ==Daybreak/Bloodstream== <!-- Deleted image removed: [[image:bloodstream (1993) video tape cover.jpg|thumb|right|Bloodstream video cover showing stars Cuba Gooding Jr and Moira Kelly. Note the confused marketing line "Brutal...Branded...Inspired by hatred..." and that Kelly is shown with short hair despite having long hair in the movie]] --> Alan Bowne's play ''Beirut'' was adapted to the tv-screen as ''Daybreak'' (''Bloodstream'') ([[1993]]) starring [[Cuba Gooding Jr]] and [[Moira Kelly]]. The film is a [[dystopian]] [[science fiction]] [[Thriller (genre)|thriller]] set in the near future in a more [[authoritarian]] [[United States|America]]. It deals with the social persecution and criminalisation of people who are infected with a [[sexually transmitted disease]] similar to [[HIV]]. Those who test positive for the disease are forcibly placed into [[quarantine]] camps. In the quarantine camps they are tattooed with a ''P'' by the authorities to indicate their positive status and shot if they try to escape. The quarantine camps are dilapidated places where patients are left to die without care or contact with the outside world. [[Moira Kelly]] plays ''Blue'' a young woman who earns a living scavenging metal in the city. She goes with a friend who wants to be tested to a ''Helping Hand'' clinic. The clinic has the sinister slogan "Making your hard choices easier". Outside the clinic they are given a card warning them against getting tested there. The card demands "Why is sickness a crime? Why is hospital a prison? Why does the helping hand hold a gun?". ''Blue'' is disturbed by this warning and meets an activist in the resistance called ''Torch'' played by [[Cuba Gooding Jr]]. The resistance works to prevent the quarantine of those who are positive. They arrange testing outside the official system so that they will not be quarantined. They rescue people being held by the ''Helping Hand'' clinic in order to give them medicine, care, and understanding. They distribute condoms and clean needles to help prevent the spread of the disease. This is contrasted with government advertisements for the ''Helping Hand'' clinics that threaten "The only way is not to play". A relationship develops between ''Blue'' and ''Torch'' and it is revealed that ''Torch'' is positive. ''Torch'' is arrested because of his activism and when the police discover that he is positive they send him to quarantine. ''Blue'' sneaks into the quarantine in order to see ''Torch''. ''Blue'' wants to be infected by ''Torch'' so that they can live together inside the quarantine camp but ''Torch'' is reluctant to infect ''Blue''. This central scene in the movie is the only scene in the play ''Beirut'' upon which the film is based. ''Blue'' could be considered an early fictional heterosexual example of a [[Bugchasing and giftgiving|bugchaser]]. ==External links== *[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=950DE5D8163DF931A35751C1A96F948260 Alan Bownes Obituary in the New York Times] *[http://www.athenatheatre.com/mt/archives/cat_beirut.php Article about a 2004 production of ''Beirut'' with a video trailer] {{DEFAULTSORT:Bowne, Alan}} [[Category:1945 births]] [[Category:1989 deaths]] [[Category:American dramatists and playwrights]] [[Category:Gay writers]] [[Category:AIDS-related deaths]]