Six Beds

It's 1983. Peter Miller from Chicago, a recent college graduate, is determined to write an account of the pain and suffering caused by the new AIDS epidemic, so he persuades the directors of a clinic to allow him to masquerade as a patient. All goes well until the other patients on the floor discover his pretense. In an intensely emotional scene they hold him down and inject him with what he believes is the virus. In the end, Zeb, the last of the five patients to survive, has the honor of telling Peter of the subterfuge, that he was not injected the “bug” at all. Peter finally is able to finish his account of his experiences on the ward. This is a powerful piece that brings to light the many questions we all deal with when faced with our own mortality.