In May 2016, a play by Ain Gordon, 217 Boxes of Dr. Henry Anonymous – based on Gordon's research as an "embedded artist" at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, where Dr. John E. Fryer's papers are archived – premiered at the Painted Bride Art Center in Philadelphia.
The play explores Fryer and the circumstances around his disguised appearance at the American Psychiatric Association's 1972 convention in Dallas as "Dr. Henry Anonymous" in a debate called "Psychiatry: Friend or Foe to the Homosexual?"