SPECIAL
EVENTS

262 Stones

a new play by Gayle Hanrahan​

Inspired by the true story of Ruth Coker Burks

​

Set in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, in 1984, 262 Stones tells the story of Tara Barnett, a young woman who steps into a hospital room no one else will enter and stays. When a dying young man named Charles asks her to call his mother, and his mother refuses to come, Tara makes a decision that will define the rest of her life: she will bury him herself, in her own family cemetery, rather than let him be discarded and forgotten. She goes on to bury dozens more, young gay men abandoned by families and funeral homes alike, marking each cracked cookie jar of ashes with a name so that no one is lost twice. An epilogue set in present-day 2026 carries the story forward, as a fifty-year-old man newly diagnosed with HIV reckons with how much, and how little, has changed. Funny, devastating, and unflinchingly honest, 262 Stones is a story about what it costs, and what it means, to refuse to look away.

Following the reading, audiences are invited to stay for a talkback featuring leaders from Rhode Island's HIV/AIDS and LGBTQ+ communities, who will discuss where HIV/AIDS treatment, prevention, and advocacy stand today in 2026, connecting the history at the heart of the play to the ongoing work happening right here in our state.