Plot

James wrote a play. Myles made it gay.

James McKenzie, a young playwright, is both nervous and thrilled when West End theatre producer, Myles Davies, agrees to develop his script about a humanitarian aid worker who contracts HIV in Sudan. James soon realises, however, that Myles has bigger plans for the script namely, turning it into 'HIV: The Musical.' Myles forces cliché, gay stereotype and misinformation as he slowly manipulates James into appealing to as broad an audience as possible.

Although James knows it is wrong to compromise his vision, and to sell out the issues he originally wrote the play to address, he finds himself complying with Myless money-driven demands for fear of losing his one shot at West End success. Eventually, James does walk away but it is not before Myles has had time to completely reinvent 'The Curse of the Compassionate Stranger' as a Mamma Mia-esque sing-along extravaganza that entirely undermines Jamess desire to engage audiences about the seriousness of HIV and stigma.

Filmed as a series of video blogs by James as well as numerous fourth wall documentary-style production meetings between playwright and producer, the final face-off between the two characters occurs when James walks into the first dress rehearsal to find a man dressed in stereotypically gay clothing (plus a yellow builders hard-hat) singing an awful electro song about contracting HIV through unprotected sex with a stranger. For the first real time he confronts Myles, who proudly introduces him to Jolian a man set to play the part of the AIDS virus dressed in devil horns and a pink tutu and tells him he is taking his script and leaving. As James storms out we hear Myles shout: 'We'll do it without you. Think about the Africans...' But his protests come to no avail.

When the scene blacks out a series of titles appear, explaining that HIV: The Musicals overwhelming commercial success means the show will soon open on Broadway. We end, finally, with a video blog that sees James silently holding up a piece of paper which reads: 'Bet you bought a ticket...'