Conigrave pulls no punches, describing his numerous infidelities with the same unflinching eye for detail as he devotes to growing up in 1970s suburban Melbourne, and the terrible impact of AIDS as it ravages both his body and John's. Written in decptively simple yet detailed prose, Holding the Man details the highs and lows of the turbulent, passionate relationship between these two men. He followed his lover to the grave two years later. John died on Australia Day, 1992, with Tim by his side. In 1985 they were both diagnosed HIV positive. In 1976, as high school students at Xavier College, the pair fell in love, and started their lives together. Purchase tickets here.Holding the Man, which actor-turned-playwright Timothy Conigrave completed only a few short weeks before he died of an AIDS-related illness, is a frank and heartfelt memoir about his 15-year-long relationship with John Caleo. When: Running from 22 March to 1 April 2023Ĭost: Preview on 22 March $35.00 |Adult $42.00 | Concession & Groups 8+ $36.00 | Under 30 $30.00 | FIBD (First In Best Dressed – 10 x tickets per regular performance) $25.00. This account of a 15-year relationship that weathered disapproval, separation, temptation and ultimately death is a story, and a celebration, that speaks across generations, sexual preferences and cultures. Those who loved the book will find that this adaptation by Tommy Murphy transfers every ounce of honesty, humour and heart-wrenching irony to the stage. Still, despite the odds, Tim and John become close and for fifteen years their relationship survives everything life throws at it – the separations, the discriminations, the temptations, the jealousies and the losses – until the only problem that love can’t solve turns up to part them.įor many Australians, Tim Conigrave’s best selling memoir about his fifteen-year relationship with John Caleo captured better than any book of the period what it was like being young and gay during the eighties AIDS crisis. The course of teenage love rarely runs smooth, but it is a white-water adventure if you were gay in an all-male school in 1970s Melbourne with a crush on the captain of the football team. Image: ACT Hub.īased on the book by Timothy Conigrave, Directed by Jarrad West.Įveryman Theatre, producers of last year’s critically acclaimed productions of Hand to God and Beautiful Thing are thrilled to be presenting as the first show in ACT Hub’s 2023 season – the funny, heartbreaking and true story of Timothy Conigrave and John Caleo. Holding The Man By Tommy Murphy running from 22 March to 1 April.

Holding the Man by Timothy Conigrave