Author's Note: This was written in 1994 for Rabelais, the infamous La Trobe University student newspaper. Brad Fraser told me about working with director Denys Arcand, the Queer theater culture in Canada and the hidden connections between AIDS and serial killer metaphors. Arcand has since made Stardom (2000). Published scripts of Fraser's ground-breaking plays include Poor Superman (2001), The Wolf Plays: Wolfboy and Prom Night of the Living Dead (1999), Martin Yesterday (1999) and The Ugly Man (1994).

Hell itself couldn't rival Brad Fraser's struggles from childhood abuse to becoming Canada's hottest playwright, and now the script-writer of Love and Human Remains, Denys Arcand's new film.

Brad Fraser survived a childhood, battling against a physically and mentally abusive alcoholic father and suffering sexual abuse at the hands of an older male cousin. After a stormy adolescence living in Edmonton, a notoriously conservative provincial Canadian town, during which Fraser openly admitted his bisexuality, he entered a competition sponsored by Alberta's Department of Culture, winning with the 1979 play Two Pariah at a Bus Stop in a Large City Late at Night. Throughout this period Fraser has struggled with an unfriendly press and often hostile artistic directors to maintain a daring artistic vision that has resulted in many public hits and growing notoriety.

Arcand shares Fraser's interest in the postmodern landscape, as shown by the intelligent, witty, and provocative Jesus of Montreal (1988), and his debut The Decline of Western Civilization (1980). Arcand had struggled for two years to write a script before seeing a performance of Unidentified Human Remains and the True Nature of Love in Alberta in 1991. Stunned, he immediately approached the writer and negotiated screen rights. "Working with Arcand was great, he had a particular thing, a focus, a people agenda," Fraser told me. "This suited me because I wanted the film to be different, I was bored with the play. The original production actually had sharper edges, it delved into scarier territory than the film, [more explicitly] examining the themes of love, lust, homosexuality and friendship, but I still like it."

Fraser admitted that he liked using a television landscape for the characters, hence the film has a fast cutting style that flicks through events. His use of metaphors to explore personal issues continued from the previous theatre collective productions with a serial killer in the film.

"In 1986 when the play debut occurred, serial killers were fresh, not as cliché as they are now. My inspiration came from the Ted Bundy case, and also the brutal 1986 slaying of Edmonton woman Brenda McLenaghan. It's a metaphor for the AIDS crisis - there isn't a serial killer in the play, but we thought it more relevant to explore that aspect in the film, to turn the story into a who-dunnit. It deals with the danger of intimacy that a disease like AIDS brings to modern society."

I asked Fraser if he had any comments on the ongoing debate within the gay community about the appropriation of these sociopolitical viewpoints as the next trendy consumer fad, and the resulting fear of compromise. "Yes, I think that gay culture is becoming more mainstream, but hopefully that will be a positive thing," Fraser answered. "In the film world, producers are always searching for new stories, new ways to examine the world - such as the spotlight on Australia about ten years ago. The straight white male producers will always become bored with each new fad and consume it, but for me personally, it's not a gender issue. Mainstream exposure will ultimately yield greater public awareness, acceptance, and understanding of alternative sexual choices, so it's something I'm comfortable with."

Fraser professed a healthy regard for the Beat Generation of writers, poets, and performers who continue to inspire him. "I don't necessarily copy their way of life because they were into some crazy things, but theirs was a generation, largely of writers, who turned around to society and said, "Fuck You! We're Rebels!" Actually I find more inspiration in music - artists like REM's Michael Stipe, Tori Amos, Peter Gabriel's use of world music/artists . . . I admire people who stand outside the system and say what they feel honestly without fear. A close friend of mine is Canadian film-maker Gregg Araki, who makes $30,000 films on credit cards and money loaned from friends. His film Totally Fucked Up is great!"

It has been three and a half years since Fraser started work with Arcand, and he finished production work nearly two years ago. The film has been released for eight months in Canada, and according to Fraser the press reaction has been ". . . hard on its own people, especially amongst the established, narrow minded critics . . ."

Courted by various Hollywood production companies that have admired his pacey, street-smart script, he recently turned down proposals from Rob Reiner's Castle Rock, and the large production company Largo Entertainment to write what he describes as ". . . a Generation X science fiction love story called Beauty for the Disney-owned Touchstone Pictures, and another film for Alliance, who distributed the film Black Robe."