Philly Fringe 2026: FringeArts presents Daniel Fish’s Kramer/Fauci

Dr. Anthony Fauci (Pete Simpson) is a career government health official and bureaucrat, working to provide the best possible medicine through the painfully slow mechanisms of the federal government. Gay author, playwright, and activist Larry Kramer (Thomas Jay Ryan) represents the firebrand, no-holds-barred activism of ACT UP. Tired of waiting and angry at the excuses, Kramer takes a sledgehammer approach to fighting what he sees as a plague. To see them spar on stage is a fascinating dissection of political tactics, but also of personality.

Phenomenal acting

The acting across the board is phenomenal. Ryan perfectly captures a man vibrating with rage and sorrow as Kramer, while Simpson manages to find deep sympathy for Fauci, even as the doctor represents a maddening government backlog. The dynamic staging reveals the true nature of their relationship: fractious, but fundamentally complex. In private, it seems, the two men share a surprisingly unified vision, but in the public arena, the one we are witness to, they differ sharply; his dichotomy infuriates Kramer, who feels betrayed.

Interspersed throughout the interview are live callers (brilliantly played by Jennifer Seastone, representing a dizzying array of cities from Baton Rouge to San Jose), who voice a wide, often distressing range of opinions from the American public. As these comments veer toward the overtly homophobic, it becomes crystal clear exactly where Fauci and Kramer align. While defending the government, Fauci delivers clear rebukes to ideas of quarantining or blaming "aberrant" behavior.

Stark shifts

Outside of these caller interruptions, the stage is mostly bare, anchored by a sterile grid lights facing directly into the audience. But Fish’s staging naturally leads to some beautifully evocative and strange images. Does a massive bubble explosion evoke a broken condom, the uncontainable spread of a virus, or the fragile interconnectedness of the world during a plague? Other choices are more bombastic and harder to decipher: why are a few of the callers dressed in chicken suits or rolling around on rollerblades? Is it simply to emphasize the sheer absurdity of their points of view? These moments contrast an often minimal approach to blocking. When the characters or the production veer into the overtly dramatic, the shift is stark.

A fascinating moment

1993 was a fascinating and underexplored moment in the AIDS crisis. ACT UP had been active for more than half a decade, Reagan and Bush were finally out of office, and mainstream media portrayals of the virus were becoming more common. Yet people were still getting infected and dying at alarming rates. This show brilliantly sheds light on that specific window in time and the dynamic tension between two of the era's pivotal figures.

It is particularly fascinating to view this piece as a prologue to the current public life of Dr. Fauci. Having watched him navigate the Covid pandemic on a global stage over the last several years, it would be easy for a play to wink at the audience. But this production impressively resists that urge. It places Fauci firmly back in his own historical context, refreshingly free of the overlay of contemporary meaning.