Jerker, or The Helping Hand: A Pornographic Elegy with Redeeming Social Value and a Hymn to the Queer Men of San Francisco in Twenty Telephone Calls, Many of Them Dirty (commonly known simply as Jerker) is a 1986 one-act play by Robert Chesley.

Chesley wrote the play because he believed it was “important to remove the stigma against sex that AIDS has created, and … to remove the stigma against gay men”. and it premiered at the Celebration Theatre on October 24, 1986.

Jerker is the story of two characters, Bert and J.R., who exchange a series of sexually explicit telephone calls after connecting through a brief encounter at a bar where they exchange numbers. The highly pornographic content of the first phone calls abates as the men begin to explore other aspects of themselves and each other. In the final scenes, J.R. cannot contact Bert because the latter has died from AIDS. J.R. declares his love for his departed friend

Now there is a new virtual production of this important classic  (and one-time very controversial) queer play from Out Front Theater that will be streaming online from April 30th to May 2nd.  However, on April 28th there will a special preview screening for AID Atlanta community conversation, hosted by HIV/AIDS activist/educator/advocate Mark S. King, and featuring the cast and crew of the production, centering around the AIDS epidemic and how it has impacted our lives and our culture for the past 40 years.

https://outfronttheatre.com/