Moving ‘Casey and Diana’ plumbs the messy layers of hope | Entertainment

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Inside Casey House, hope has a sound. 

Thomas, the longest tenured resident at this AIDS hospice in Toronto, can hear it “through the walls and floors … a faint, warm ringing. The whole house was ringing.”

In seven days, the people’s princess (“Princess freakin’ Diana,” per Thomas) will visit. Thomas and his sister “watched every single minute” of the royal wedding. He is determined to make it — to stay alive — until the princess arrives.

Nick Green’s play “Casey and Diana,” onstage indoors at American Players Theatre through Sept. 24, takes inspiration from a real visit the Princess of Wales paid to Canada’s first stand-alone hospice for people dying of AIDS in October 1991.

Commissioned by the Stratford Festival, “Casey” premiered in June 2023 and has already been widely produced in Canadian theaters.

La Shawn Banks, a new core acting company member and a regular at APT for more than a decade, slides into Thomas’ slippers like the role was written for him. Wickedly funny and incredibly quick, Thomas ribs the staff, tossing out “Golden Girls” references and quips from “Steel Magnolias.” Banks has a comedian’s hyper-tuned sense of timing. He’s divine. 

Yet underneath his wisecracks — or beside them, perhaps — Thomas wrestles with the injustice of this untimely, painful end. Young Andre (Joe Meyer) arrives from the hospital at the top of the play as Thomas’ fourth roommate. Men don’t come to Casey House to get better.

“Casey and Diana” braids three storylines together. The first follows Marjorie, a volunteer played with self-deprecation and empathy by Colleen Madden, and prickly, vulnerable Andre, estranged from his family. 

Andre has his walls up, but as he softens, Marjorie gets attached. She crosses patient-caregiver lines she knows she shouldn’t. Vera, a relentlessly competent hospice nurse played with subtle compassion by Elizabeth Ledo, notices. 

“We are here to help men with AIDS,” Vera says. “We are here to help them die. It is a huge gift to give, and it is enough. Any confusion about that — trust me, trust me — will only cause pain.”

A second storyline revolves around Thomas and his sister, Pauline (a marvelous Dee Dee Batteast), who disappeared from Thomas’ life after his diagnosis. The reconciliation between these two feels hard-won and deeply human, and is among the play’s most hopeful scenes.

The third storyline involves Diana herself, played with a ballerina’s posture and a whisper of a smile by Hannah Ruwe. Thomas imagines the princess, narrating each day to her as the residents start eating more and taking walks. They’re holding on until her visit.

Lighting designer Zack Lobel shifts and warms the lights as Thomas slides into fantasy, and every day, “no one died,” Thomas says.

Scott Penner’s intimate set, complete with a dollhouse-sized rendering of Casey House, grounds the action of the play among quilts over hospital beds, the residents’ suitcases tucked underneath. 

Daniele Tyler Mathews’ costumes tell stories in themselves. Thomas wears a jean jacket emblazoned with Madonna’s face and teal nylon windbreaker pants. Marjorie’s plaid top evokes the ’90s, as do Joe Cerqua’s pre-show song picks (Marky Mark and Mariah, anyone?). Diana’s pink blazer was inspired by the one she actually wore. 

“Casey and Diana” is brilliantly built. Michael Herwitz, a New York-based director making his debut at APT this summer, conducts it like a piece of music. The play moves in and out of imagination with the ease of breathing. Yet throughout, Herwitz’s staging does not flinch amid the messy, complicated business of dying.

The stories in “Casey and Diana” are “unbelievably sad,” as Diana says. Yet at Casey House, we find dignity, love, even hope. Listen closely. Hear it ringing.