Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes : Perestroika (Angels in America)

Rating:
Summary: I LOVE this play!
Review: Amazing. A perfect ending. I find this to be the epitomy of excellent playwrighting. If you have any interest in becoming more well-read, please read this two-part series. It only gets better as you go along.

Rating:
Summary: A captivating play.
Review: Angels in America is a well written play. At first, I was surprised at how daring the book was and I was a little confused at the beginning. But once I continued reading on, I realized that Tony Kushner took a part of society that is viewed as abnormal and strange and put it into a play that is captivating. Reading the play led me to a different perspective of how gay men live their lives not only dealing with society's beliefs but also dealing with AIDS. Throughout the play, Kushner reminds the reader of how terrible living with AIDS feels. Kushner constantly speaks of the symptoms that Roy and Prior have due to the AIDS virus. He reminds us of the lesions that those with AIDs acquire and that they are easily susceptible to other viruses such as pneumonia. When Kushner writes about the pain that they go through, the reader can feel this pain. No one should have to go through that pain, no matter what they have done to others. This brings me to my point about Roy. While reading the scenes with Roy, I sympathize with him because of the dreadful pain he is going through, even though he has done much to hurt the lives of other people. Kushner appeared to do this on purpose so that he can relay his message that no one should have to deal with the AIDs virus. He also reminds the reader of how much society dislikes homosexuals. For instance, when Joe told his mother that he was gay, the first thing that she did was sell her house and move to New York. Kushner was very open about the lives of homosexuals. It appears that he took a chance in writing this book by writing openly the lives of gay men. By this I mean that he included every detail of how these men live, their work and even their sex life. It is not everyday that a person can pick up a book which includes sex scenes of gay men. By writing these scenes, Kushner took up a challenge against society. That is why the book is a good one. Kushner wrote what he believed in and felt should be published for society. He should be commended for taking up the challenge of writing a captivating play about homosexuals and living with the AIDs virus.

Rating:
Summary: Captivating
Review: I read this playbook without having seen the play, which I usual don't do, but this one just kept me hooked from start to finish.

Rating:
Summary: A Landmark play for the 90's
Review: If one had to choose the ten best or most influnetial plays of the 1990's, Tony Kishner's Angels In America: The Milleniun Approaches and Perestroika would be on the list. The first one was comedic and tragic, with a brilliant conclusion. One would think it would be a difficult follow-up. Well, the second is actually better than the first. The characters are developed further, and the crisis continues. This play is more symbolic and expressionistic than the first, but that is the key to it's success.

At once heart-breaking and funny, compassionate and humorous, this play strikes a chord, and is worthy of the praise it has received.

Rating:
Summary: Strange bedfellows
Review: If you haven't yet read it, please read the prequel to this play, 'Angels in America, Pt. 1: Millennium Approaches' prior to this one. The staging is a bit different, similar in style (rapid scene changes, minimalist set, etc.) but it starts out with the wreckage from the Angel's entry in the previous play.

Kushner described this play as a comedy, but I cannot see it that way. Except for irony and dark humour (perhaps akin to the idea of the Human Comedy, in which nothing is really funny) almost ever movement in the play is serious. And yet, in the face of death, what can be serious?

Roy Cohn is on his deathbed in the hospital, and receives prayers and rebuke from Ethel Rosenberg. Harper is gloriously insane in many ways with a Valium addiction, having lost Joe to a male lover. Harper lives with Hannah, Joe's mother now ensconced in New York City.

Louis and Prior struggle to come to terms, although Prior knows that Louis has met up with Joe. Cohn learns of Joe's marriage break-up and the cause, and throws a fit.

Oh yes, did I fail to mention the drag-queen-turned-nurse named Belize (a stage name) who attends both Cohn in the hospital and Prior at home?

There are extended scenes of Prior and the Angel, exchanging information, stories, prophecies. Back in the days when the supply of AZT was almost non-existent, Cohn manages to get some via his connexions, and Belize manages to get some away from him for Prior. Later, after Cohn dies, he steals the rest of the supply, but not before calling Louis in to recite the Kaddish in thanks for the 'gift'. Of course, Louis doesn't want to.

'I'm not saying any ... Kaddish for him. The drugs OK, sure, fine, but no... way am I praying for him. My New Deal Pinko Parents in Schenectady would never forgive me, they're already so disappointed, "He's a f*g. He's an office temp. And now look, he's saying Kaddish for Roy Cohn".'

In the end, there is death, and there is life, and even the high angels cannot stop the progress, for they don't know how. But, like most mythologies, there is a hope that survives. 'This disease will be the end of many of us, but not nearly all, and the dead will be commemorated and will struggle on with the living, and we are not going away. We won't die secret deaths anymore. The world only spins forward. We will be citizens. The time has come.'

Kushner's plays are remarkable statements of the culture of the times, in the 1980s and 1990s, with the growth of the AIDS crisis and the unveiling of diversity in all its suffering during arguably the most inopportune political time it could have been occurring, the Reagan/Bush era.

The characterisations are astonishing, as is the dialogue, and despite the drawbacks of play-form to more conventional narrative, this play yields fascinating results, not the least of which because it permits the reader to construct new meanings in conjunction with the play.

***

Kushner's prophetic call for a new world has not been fully answered, and perhaps never can be fully answered. Prophetic calls are interesting things - most prophets in fact fail in their mission (if you look at the Bible and other religions, you'll find out that prophets are often right, but only discovered to be right after their advice has been ignored and destruction has been the result).

The call to the world that I see is that we must all have compassion on those who suffer, for a true commitment to humanity requires that the living make amends to the dead by saving those who can be saved, and comforting those who cannot be to the best of our abilities.

Rating:
Summary: Strange bedfellows
Review: If you haven't yet read it, please read the prequel to this play, `Angels in America, Pt. 1: Millennium Approaches' prior to this one. The staging is a bit different, similar in style (rapid scene changes, minimalist set, etc.) but it starts out with the wreckage from the Angel's entry in the previous play.

Kushner described this play as a comedy, but I cannot see it that way. Except for irony and dark humour (perhaps akin to the idea of the Human Comedy, in which nothing is really funny) almost ever movement in the play is serious. And yet, in the face of death, what can be serious?

Roy Cohn is on his deathbed in the hospital, and receives prayers and rebuke from Ethel Rosenberg. Harper is gloriously insane in many ways with a Valium addiction, having lost Joe to a male lover. Harper lives with Hannah, Joe's mother now ensconced in New York City.

Louis and Prior struggle to come to terms, although Prior knows that Louis has met up with Joe. Cohn learns of Joe's marriage break-up and the cause, and throws a fit.

Oh yes, did I fail to mention the drag-queen-turned-nurse named Belize (a stage name) who attends both Cohn in the hospital and Prior at home?

There are extended scenes of Prior and the Angel, exchanging information, stories, prophecies. Back in the days when the supply of AZT was almost non-existent, Cohn manages to get some via his connexions, and Belize manages to get some away from him for Prior. Later, after Cohn dies, he steals the rest of the supply, but not before calling Louis in to recite the Kaddish in thanks for the `gift'. Of course, Louis doesn't want to.

`I'm not saying any ... Kaddish for him. The drugs OK, sure, fine, but no... way am I praying for him. My New Deal Pinko Parents in Schenectady would never forgive me, they're already so disappointed, "He's a f*g. He's an office temp. And now look, he's saying Kaddish for Roy Cohn".'

In the end, there is death, and there is life, and even the high angels cannot stop the progress, for they don't know how. But, like most mythologies, there is a hope that survives. `This disease will be the end of many of us, but not nearly all, and the dead will be commemorated and will struggle on with the living, and we are not going away. We won't die secret deaths anymore. The world only spins forward. We will be citizens. The time has come.'

Kushner's plays are remarkable statements of the culture of the times, in the 1980s and 1990s, with the growth of the AIDS crisis and the unveiling of diversity in all its suffering during arguably the most inopportune political time it could have been occurring, the Reagan/Bush era.

The characterisations are astonishing, as is the dialogue, and despite the drawbacks of play-form to more conventional narrative, this play yields fascinating results, not the least of which because it permits the reader to construct new meanings in conjunction with the play.

***

Kushner's prophetic call for a new world has not been fully answered, and perhaps never can be fully answered. Prophetic calls are interesting things - most prophets in fact fail in their mission (if you look at the Bible and other religions, you'll find out that prophets are often right, but only discovered to be right after their advice has been ignored and destruction has been the result).

The call to the world that I see is that we must all have compassion on those who suffer, for a true commitment to humanity requires that the living make amends to the dead by saving those who can be saved, and comforting those who cannot be to the best of our abilities.

Rating:
Summary: Angels in America is a story of love, happiness, sadness etc
Review: Tony Kushner has an interesting way of showing his audience how reality isn't really fun at all. He walks us through the lives of a group of people in which they all know each other somewhere along the line. Tragedy has struck a gay couple...AIDS. Prior contracted aids, hence, his boyfriend decided to leave him. Joe is a married man who is in the closet about being gay, whereas, his wife Harper is an agoraphobic addicted to valium. Life isn't very simple among this group. Kushner somehow makes this story somewhat beautiful. As Prior is dying, Kushner has this Angel come and comfort him. He shows his audience how one may deal with such issues. He sends the message that when things go wrong, stay strong and follow your heart, and everything will turn out okay. Some of the characters in Angels in America changed throughout the story, which made things all the more interesting. For instance, I first perceived Joe as this sweet, original, money making husband. I eventually realized that he was different than what I thought. He turned out to be a confused, gay, and sometimes weak person.

Overall, I think Kushner did a wonderful job in writing this book. There were plenty of times where I found myself to not be able to put down the book. It was very creative, truthful, loving, sad, hopeful, tragic, and powerful. I know that Tony Kushner is an excellent writer just because he can smoothly combine all of those emotions into one story, and make it sound good. Angels in America is an excellent novel, and I would recommend it to anyone.