After the initial flurry of well-meaning dramas, Aids as a theme for popular entertainment has been thin on the ground. So it comes as a welcome surprise to find that HIV plays a central role in the

theatrical tour-de-force that is Street of Blood, a contemporary, devastatingly effective epic in the guise of a campy, adult puppet show. It premiered here in the UK at the recent Brighton Arts Festival.
The genius behind it - he crafted the puppets and conceived, wrote and performs the show practically solo - is 46 year-old Ronnie Burkett (below), a proudly 'gay artist' from the conservative Canadian Province of Alberta, who has been winning awards since he formed his own marionette company in 1986.
The show's most enduringly popular character is small-town widow, Edna Rural, who anchors the two-and-a-half hour performance. Edna was originally conceived as a Canadian icon to be ridiculed - the bigoted, fearful country housewife - explains

Burkett over coffee during the show's Brighton run.
"There was a phone-in on the radio, and some woman from middle Alberta