Contemporary theatre has directly engaged the human suffering caused by a pandemic in the past. In the 80s and 90s, many plays and musicals were written and staged that dramatised the HIV/AIDs epidemic, including well-known works like Rent (also at the Stratford Festival this year), Angels in America, and The Normal Heart. Casey and Diana, also a play that deals with AIDs, follows in the footsteps of these important texts but in the shadow of the most recent global health crisis─the COVID 19 pandemic.