Satan and Simon DeSoto

Sod, Ted

Primary Category: Literature / Plays

Genre: Play

Annotated by:
Kohn, Martin
  • Date of entry: Jul-03-1998

Summary

This work is an AIDS play based on the Faust legend. The main character, Simon, is both homosexual and homophobic, a combination which the author believes to be less threatening to the "latent homophobes in the audience." Simon strikes a deal with the devil in order to reverse his HIV positive antibody status. The bargain struck entails deceiving and then abandoning his friends and changing his sexual identity. The vehicle for Simon's change is an "Andrew Dice Clay-like" nightclub act, the source of the play's dark humor.

Commentary

The play was a finalist in the 1993 Eugene O'Neill Theatre Center's National Playwrights' Conference.

Primary Source

Sharing the Delirium: Second Generation AIDS Plays and Performances

Publisher

Heinemann

Place Published

Portsmouth, N.H.

Edition

1994

Editor

Therese Jones