It's A Sin star Nathaniel Hall on the show's impact, HIV activism and being diagnosed at 16

"I found out he was writing it and I said to my agent, that’s a perfect match,” recalls theatre maker and HIV activist Hall. “I actually messaged Russell - and I don’t advocate people doing this - on Instagram, not really expecting a response...He messaged straight back saying let’s go for a coffee. So I had this pinch me moment, where I was sat in a coffee shop telling my story to him.”

It led - in a roundabout way - to Hall’s TV acting debut, when It’s A Sin hit our screens a year ago (he played the role of Donald Basset). The show followed five friends growing up in London in the 1980s, in the shadow of AIDS.

It received high praise for its emotive scenes but Hall, the only openly HIV positive member of the cast, admits he was anxious when he first settled down to watch it. “I was quite worried when I first saw it because although it’s such a beautiful piece of drama, and so moving and affecting, the imagery of people cleaning themselves and being quarantined, I wondered if it would have a negative impact on people’s attitudes...that obviously was HIV at the start of the pandemic when that fear and paranoia and panic was so present.

“But that worry was all unfounded because what happened, because it was such an amazing drama, is that it was being talked about everywhere. And that offered an opportunity for people like me, for charities, for the cast - all credit to them as we don’t get paid for interviews - to do amazing work, to think here’s an opportunity to re-educate and get the nation talking about HIV.”

Powerful drama

Last year’s National HIV Testing Week fell during the show’s broadcast - and the impact was palpable. As Ian Green, the chief executive of national HIV and sexual health charity the Terrence Higgins Trust, said “rather than scaring people, the series motivated more people than ever before to get tested”. On the first day, more than 8,000 tests were ordered, “considerably higher” than on any day in the campaign’s history.

Internet searches around HIV also spiked during the show’s transmission run. “That shows you the power of really good drama,” Hall reflects, “not to actually present all the answers but actually to give people the prompt to go and find out more themselves.”

Hall found out he’d secured a part in the series during a run of his autobiographical theatre show First Time in Edinburgh. Since crafting the production in 2017, he has toured it across the UK, documenting his experiences of being HIV positive.

“At the end of that [coffee shop] conversation, Russell looked at me and said ‘well you’re too old for the main characters in this show (It’s A Sin) but there might be a role in there for you’, with a kind of glint in his eye,” Hall recalls. “He sent a producer to come and see my show and then I was invited to audition [for It’s A Sin] like everybody else. That was how it happened.

"I found out I’d got a part when I was in Edinburgh, doing First Time. I’d just got a five star review in The Stage and then about two minutes later my agent called me and told me I’d got a part. I think I peaked, I was on cloud nine for quite a while then.”

Autobiographical show

Hall, who studied theatre and performance at Bretton Hall with the University of Leeds, is now preparing to embark on the 2022 leg of his First Time tour, which will include a performance in Goole next month. Described as “hilarious and heartbreaking”, the solo show, produced by Manchester based Dibby Theatre, charts his experience growing up gay and being diagnosed as HIV positive two weeks before his 17th birthday in 2003, after his first sexual experience. He didn’t tell his family for close to 15 years.

“I got home and I put my key in the door and I thought I could go tell my mum or I could go upstairs in my room and close the door,” says Hall. “And I went upstairs to my room and closed the door and that was the start of shutting down and not sharing what had happened, which unfortunately plagued my life for far too long.”

In 2017, frequently partying and leaning on alcohol and drugs to get him through the week, Hall decided things needed to change. “I needed to get this thing out”, he says.

As well as opening up to his family, the writer, performer and producer turned to what he knew best - making theatre. “I’ve always encouraged other people to be brave, to be authentic on stage, to tell their stories, to break through their own shame,” the 35-year-old from Stockport reflects. “And in 2017, I thought I really need to take my own medicine here because there’s this huge secret in my life that I wasn’t sharing.

“I had this realisation of a. how unhappy I was and b. how staying silent about my HIV diagnosis had confirmed that it was something to be ashamed of, how I had bought into the narrative of stigma, that HIV is something you should be ashamed of. I thought well, if I’m not ashamed, how do I do and show that? And to me that was by saying it publicly and saying it over and over again.”

HIV activism

That, he has certainly done. Hall’s HIV activism continues long after the curtain has come down. His outreach work, a project called In Equal Parts, aims to educate people on modern HIV healthcare and prevention and destigmatise attitudes to the virus.

Working with organisations including the Terrence Higgins Trust and George House Trust, it has engaged more than 60,000 people in workshops, talks, rapid HIV testing and fundraising parties and is helping to empower people to understand their role in contributing to the country’s target of eliminating all new HIV transmissions by 2030. “We’re really closing in on HIV but it’s about normalising testing and getting routine testing into a range of settings,” he says. “Testing is really important as it’s really important that people know their status.”

Hall is determined to contribute to a world “where people living with HIV can live proudly, confidently and happily with their diagnosis”. “I really advocate for a world where people can talk about HIV in the same way we might talk about diabetes or a cancer diagnosis,” he says. “It is probably one of the world’s most stigmatised illnesses…and that has such a profound impact on people’s lives.

"Physically most people now will be fine with HIV as long as it’s caught early on and they’re put onto medication...but it’s the psychological impact of the diagnosis that’s still so huge. It’s important to create a world where everyone understands their role in ending HIV transmissions but also understands how their words, their language and their actions can impact on people living with HIV.”

National testing week

The 2022 leg of Nathaniel Hall’s First Time coincides in part with National HIV Testing Week, which takes places from February 7. Testing helps to reduce the number of people living with undiagnosed HIV and those diagnosed late.

The NHS describes HIV as a virus that damages cells in the immune system and weakens people’s ability to fight infections and disease. AIDS is the name used to describe a number of potentially life-threatening illnesses that happen when the immune system has been severely damaged by HIV.

The Terrence Higgins Trust explains: “In the 1980s and early 90s, most people with HIV were eventually diagnosed with AIDS. Now, thanks to modern antiretroviral treatment, very few people in the UK develop serious HIV-related illnesses.”

Hall performs First Time at the Junction, Goole on February 3. Visit www.nathanieljhall.co.uk/first-time