Nov 11, 2009

Angels in America | Introduction

Angels in America is the first major work of playwright Tony Kushner, and its astounding success has turned the man and his writing into cultural icons of the late-twentieth century. Referred to by scholar John M. Clum in Acting Gay: Male Homosexuality in Modern Drama as ''a turning point in the history of gay drama, the history of American drama, and of American literary culture,’’ Angels has received numerous awards and critical accolades, including the Pulitzer Prize for drama and the Antoinette Perry (Tony) Award for best play. It has been produced in dozens of countries around the world and translated into several languages, including Chinese.

Interestingly, Angels in America began as a work made for hire. After writing only a handful of plays, and experiencing only one major production, Kushner was approached by Oskar Eustis, a resident director at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, who had been impressed by the playwright' s first drama, A Bright Room Called Day. In 1987, Eustis asked Kushner to write a play about the impact of AIDS on the gay community in San Francisco for the Eureka Theater. The two applied for grants, conducted workshops, and developed the work, which became Angels in America, at the Mark Taper Forum. The play then went on to the Eureka and later to the National Theatre of Great Britain, where it began to attract its global following.

Angels in America is an "epic" drama, which means its plot unfolds over great distances of time and place, involves many characters, and more than one story line. Two complete plays form the entire plot: the first part, Millennium Approaches and its second installment, Perestroika. Together, they present more than thirty characters in eight acts, fifty-nine scenes, and an epilogue.

Kushner subtitled his play ''A Gay Fantasia on National Themes.’’ Like a "fantasia," which is a medley of familiar tunes with variations and interludes, the play's scenes often seem musical, like operatic arias, playful duets, or powerful trios. Characters move in and out of conversations with each other, sometimes even overlapping other vignettes, which occur onstage at the same time, and the settings change rapidly from offices to bedrooms, from hospital wards to the imaginary South Pole.

For all its intricacies, however, the plot of the play is quite simple. It is the story of two couples whose relationships are disintegrating, set in America in the 1980s against a backdrop of greed, conservatism, sexual politics, and the discovery of an awful new disease: AIDS. It is this backdrop that provides Angels in America its magnitude and sets it apart from other love stories. In this play, the plot is largely driven by its themes, which are viewed from different characters' perspectives, as through a kaleidoscope, as the story unfolds.

Angels in America Summary

Millennium Approaches: Act I, scene 1
It is late-October, 1985, and Rabbi Isidor Chemelwitz stands alone next to a small coffin, conducting the funeral service for Sarah Ironson. In his eulogy for the deceased, he describes her as a caring, devoted wife and mother who traveled from Eastern Europe to America to make a home for herself and the Jewish people in "the melting pot where nothing melted." Rabbi Chemelwitz says Sarah was "the last of the Mohicans," and warns that soon, "all the old will be dead."

Millennium Approaches: Act I, scene 2
The same day as the funeral, Roy Cohn is visited in his office by Joseph Porter Pitt. Roy is a vulgar man, who screams and swears as he juggles three different conversations on his office phone. Joe is a Mormon, sensitive to Roy's foul language but eager to advance his career. He is an attorney who has been working as a law clerk in the Court of Appeals, and Roy is ready to give him his big break: he wants the younger man to go to Washington and work for the Justice Department, where he can be Roy's eyes and ears. Joe is stunned, appreciative, and agrees to discuss the opportunity with his wife.

Millennium Approaches: Act I, scene 3
Joe's wife, Harper, spends her days alone, often in a haze from sedatives she takes, and longing for a closer relationship with her husband, who is drifting further and further away from her. This scene begins with Harper sitting at home, listening to the radio, and talking to herself. She fantasizes about the ozone layer, and what it must look like from space, where "guardian angels, hands linked, make a sort of spherical net, a bluegreen nesting orb, a shell of safety for life itself." Alternately paranoid and visionary, Harper is like the canary in a coal mine. She is more sensitive to danger than ordinary people, yet unable to save herself from the trouble ahead.

She is caught in the midst of her reverie by Mr. Lies, an imaginary travel agent who offers to take her on a vacation away from her worries—perhaps to Antarctica or the ozone layer. Harper complains to Mr. Lies that she is worried about the coming third millennium, when all sorts of strange things could happen.

This time, her fantasy is interrupted by the abrupt appearance of Joe. Once again late coming home, Joe claims to have been "out walking" and pitches his news to Harper: would she like to move to Washington?

Millennium Approaches:... » Complete Angels in America Summary