Press

“This was the first production of Reasons for Staying in decades, but not for lack of trying on Derek and Mary’s part. It’s only now, through the efforts of Alastair – and away from the needs of more commercial theatre – that Colm’s work is able to be revived. This context is vital to Derek, who stresses the importance of the Project not being ‘beholden to corporate interests’. Through today’s lens, it’s tempting to think about the AIDS crisis as something defined by all that could have been and wasn’t. The AIDS Plays Project works in opposition to this. ‘We’d be here for ages if we started talking about what’s been lost, it can’t be a list of the dead,’ Alastair says. Instead, he’s spurred on by the need to fill in the gaps that exist in both gay history and the theatrical landscape.”
The AIDS Plays Project is bringing forgotten queer theatre to back to life
Sam Moore, The Face, 13.05.25

“The busy 28-year-old Brit is hellbent on developing current and future generations’ knowledge of queer history by championing the voices we’ve lost. And yet, it’s never heavy-handed. Alastair Curtis’ work both chronicles the past and showcases the ever-present joy of queerness, from the kooky to the kinky.”

How Alastair Curtis Is Rescuing the Works of the Playwrights Lost to AIDS
Max McCormack, Interview Magazine, 27.02.25

“Go to a gay bar and intentionally have a conversation with a patron twice your age. That’s the advice from Alastair Curtis, a filmmaker, producer, and now—by default—queer historian who’s resurrecting an entire generation of gay playwrights lost to AIDS. “A lot of the project has grown out of conversations with queer elders who’ve said, ‘Do you know this writer? Oh, I used to sleep with that writer.’ Or, ‘Oh, do you know about the scandal involving that writer?’ That contellating equality of queer culture is one that I find deeply exciting,” Curtis says. Founded in 2023, The AIDS Plays Project aims to discover, present, and preserve an indelible chapter of LGBTQ+ history where theater was an act of resistance. “These writers are not really part of our consciousness anymore,” says Curtis, who’s been developing a significant following in London for one-off performances featuring some of the city’s cutting-edge queer talent like drag queen Sue Gives a F**ck.”
The AIDS Plays Project brings forgotten works by playwrights whose lives were cut short back to the stage
Matthew Wrexler, Queerty, 27.02.25

“For far too long, our stories have been told by those outside of our community—those who, more often than not, aimed to portray us in a negative light. But with Plainclothes and Sweetheart, there’s a new wave of queer filmmakers reclaiming our history, reminding us where we came from so that we can collectively cruise along to a better and brighter future.”

Cruising through the years: These two films are reclaiming queer history & the great gay pastime
Cameron Scheetz, Queerty, 27.01.25

“’The reviews were incredibly raucous demonstrations of homophobia,’ says the young British playwright and director Alastair Curtis. “One review said that ‘this was clearly meant only for the delectation of homosexuals.’” Fifty years later, Curtis is attempting to revive the Cat at the London Performance Studios, hoping for a better reception. “It’s going to be a hoot,” he promises. Reviving Kirkwood’s flop, as opposed to his megahit, might seem counterintuitive, but it’s of a piece with Curtis’s ambitions.”
The AIDS Plays Project honours a lost generation of writers
Louis Wise, Financial Times, 08.10.24

“Around a blue-lit, shrunken stage at London Performance Studios last month, a bustling crowd of queers erupted into feverish, teary applause. A performance of Jerker, the 1986 play about phone sex during the Aids pandemic by the late San Franciscan playwright and activist Robert Chesley, had just concluded. It was the spot to be that Saturday night, and only the latest in a string of evenings put on by The Aids Play Project, an organisation founded by playwright and director Alastair Curtis ‘to revive parts of our archive or history’, he explains.”

London’s Queer Creatives: “We feel unsupported by the bastions of creativity like the National Theatre”
Joe Bromley, Evening Standard, 31.05.24

“Curtis is a writer, critic and occasional revivalist of so-called “lost” plays. A couple of years ago, he became interested in the generation of playwrights from the 1970s and 80s who we lost to HIV/AIDS. Many of them, such as Charles Ludlam, Harry Kondoleon, and Robert Chesley, were acclaimed in their time, but following their untimely deaths, their works have become somewhat forgotten. This is the injustice that Alastair rails against with his AIDS Play Project.”
Alastair Curtis is reviving the forgotten plays of writers who died of HIV/AIDS
Barry Pierce, HERO, 06.12.23

“The AIDS Plays Project, spearheaded by Alastair Curtis, seeks to restage theatrical works created by writers lost to HIV/AIDS.”

Alastair Curtis on Rediscovering Plays by Writers Lost to AIDS
Sam Moore, Frieze, 08.09.23