{"id":281376,"date":"2026-09-08T10:54:08","date_gmt":"2026-09-08T10:54:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/281376\/"},"modified":"2026-09-08T10:54:08","modified_gmt":"2026-09-08T10:54:08","slug":"philly-fringe-opens-with-kramer-fauci-debate-of-yesteryear","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/281376\/","title":{"rendered":"Philly Fringe opens with \u2018Kramer\/Fauci\u2019 debate of yesteryear"},"content":{"rendered":"

From Philly and the Pa. suburbs to South Jersey and Delaware, what would you like WHYY News to cover? Let us know!<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

The 2026 Philadelphia Fringe Festival opens with an argument.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cKramer\/Fauci\u201d<\/a> is a play whose script is a verbatim transcript of a 1993 television call-in show on C-SPAN featuring Anthony Fauci, then the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and writer and AIDS activist Larry Kramer.\n<\/p>\n

Both were deeply entrenched in finding a solution to the AIDS epidemic, which was spreading at an alarming rate, but vehemently disagreed on how to do it.\n <\/p>\n

At one point, Fauci, who normally displays a calm and diplomatic demeanor, took Kramer to task for saying the U.S. government\u2019s lackluster investment in HIV and AIDS research had attracted subpar talent.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cLarry, I have to disagree with you on that,\u201d Fauci said. \u201cYou can\u2019t say there are a bunch of losers working on HIV and AIDS. It isn\u2019t the case. You know that.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know that, and I\u2019m ashamed of you because what you say in private and what you say in public are two different things,\u201d Kramer shot back. \u201cAnd that\u2019s what bothers me, that you have to live this double-edged life.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

The hourlong duet of frenemies locked into an intellectual wrestling match over a dire public health crisis is what brought theater artist Daniel Fish back to YouTube over and over to watch the 33-year-old broadcast<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI was moved by it. I was entertained by it. I was just struck by it,\u201d Fish said. \u201cEvery time I went back to listen to it, I just found it really compelling on lots of different levels.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\u201cKramer\/Fauci\u201d premiered at the New York University Skirball Center in New York City last February. The Philly Fringe will be its second iteration before returning to New York to run at St. Anne\u2019s Warehouse through October.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI so associate him with the COVID pandemic,\u201d said Fringe Executive Director Nell Bang-Jensen of Fauci. \u201cIt was interesting to look back at this dialogue and realize how long he has been a public servant.\u201d
\n\"WillWill Brill and Thomas Jay Ryan star in a previous production of \u201cKramer\/Fauci,\u201d by Daniel Fish, which opens the 2026 Philly Fringe Festival. (Maria Baranova)\n<\/p>\n

Fauci again became front-page news in July as he faced accusations from senators during a congressional hearing over how he handled the COVID-19 pandemic. He was held in contempt<\/a> after declining to answer questions, citing his 5th Amendment protection against self incrimination.\n<\/p>\n

A finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and a nominee for an Academy Award, Kramer died at 84 in May 2020.\u00a0 His death during the pandemic shutdown is what led Fish to discover the old TV broadcast online.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI saw the original production of \u2018The Normal Heart,\u2019\u201d Fish said of Kramer\u2019s 1985 play. \u201cIt remains one of the great theater experiences of my lifetime.\u201d\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From Philly and the Pa. suburbs to South Jersey and Delaware, what would you like WHYY News to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":281377,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[60829,69,30779,71,70],"class_list":["post-281376","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-anthony-fauci","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-fringe-festival","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281376","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=281376"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281376\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/281377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=281376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=281376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=281376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}