Angels
in America : A Gay Fantasia on National Themes : Part One :
Millennium Approaches by
Tony Kushner
Tony Kushner's Angels
in America is that rare entity: a work for the stage that is
profoundly moving yet very funny, highly theatrical yet steeped in
traditional literary values, and most of all deeply American in
its attitudes and political concerns. In two full-length plays--Millennium
Approaches and Perestroika--Kushner tells the story of
a handful of people trying to make sense of the world. Prior is a
man living with AIDS whose lover Louis has left him and become
involved with Joe, an ex-Mormon and political conservative whose
wife, Harper, is slowly having a nervous breakdown. These stories
are contrasted with that of Roy Cohn (a fictional re-creation of
the infamous American conservative ideologue who died of AIDS in
1986) and his attempts to remain in the closet while trying to
find some sort of personal salvation in his beliefs.
But such a summary does not do justice to
Kushner's grand plan, which mixes magical realism with political
speeches, high comedy with painful tragedy, and stitches it all
together with a daring sense of irony and a moral vision that
demands respect and attention. On one level, the play is an
indictment of the government led by Ronald Reagan, from the
blatant disregard for the AIDS crisis to the flagrant political
corruption. But beneath the acute sense of political and moral
outrage lies a meditation on what it means to live and die--of
AIDS, or anything else--in a society that cares less and less
about human life and basic decency. The play's breadth and
internal drive is matched by its beautiful writing and unbridled
compassion. Winner of two Tony Awards and the 1991
Pulitzer
Prize for drama, Angels in America is one of the most
outstanding plays of the American theater. --Michael Bronski
Angels
in America : A Gay Fantasia on National Themes : Perestroika by
Tony Kushner
The second half of Kushner's Pulitzer
Prize-winning epic steers the characters introduced in Millennium
Approaches from the opportunistic 1980s to a new sense of
community in the 1990s, as they struggle to overcome catastrophic
loss.
"At the end of Millennium Approaches,
the Pulitzer Prize-winning first part of Angels in America
, an angel crashes in on AIDS sufferer Prior Walter and declares
him a prophet, which is pretty expressionistic-surrealistic stuff,
not to mention its cliff-hanger value. Perestroika follows
on from that moment not only in its action but in its treatment;
for rather than teetering between realism and fantasy like part 1,
it's wholeheartedly expressionist. The drama is better for this
firmer sense of theatrical style. The archness and pop-cultural
knowingness of the gay characters' dialogue is more tolerable, and
the play's grand point (which Kushner seemed not to be approaching
in Millennium Approaches) is better made in a fantastic
context because it is an abstract argument about fate and human
values. The gist of it is that God has vanished (but not died),
leaving humanity as the only other creative force around, and we
just want more life and love, by golly. Kinda thin gruel, but
preceded by so many theatrical pyrotechnics that second helpings
of many of the awards Millennium Approaches got are
entirely to be expected." -- Ray Olson, Booklist
Approaching
the Millennium : Essays on Angels in America (Theater -
Text/Theory Performance Series) by Deborah R. Geis
(Editor), Steven F. Kruger (Editor)
Tony Kushner's complex and demanding play Angels
in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes has been the
most talked about, analyzed, and celebrated play of the decade.
The critic Harold Bloom has included Kushner's play in his
"Western canon" alongside Shakespeare and the Bible, and
drama scholar John M. Clum has termed it "a turning point in
the history of gay drama, the history of American drama, and of
American literary culture." While we might be somewhat wary
of the instant canonization that such critical assessments confer,
clearly Kushner's play is an important work, honored by the
Pulitzer Prize, thought worthy of recognition on "purely
aesthetic" grounds at the same time that it has been
embraced--and occasionally rejected--for its politics.
Kushner's play explicitly positions itself in
the current American conflict over identity politics, yet also
situates that debate in a broader historical context: the American
history of McCarthyism, of immigration and the "melting
pot," of westward expansion, and of racist exploitation.
Furthermore, the play enters into the politically volatile
struggles of the AIDS crisis, struggles themselves interconnected
with the politics of sexuality, gender, race, and class.
The original essays in Approaching the
Millennium explore the complexities of the play and situate it
in its particular, conflicted historical moment. The contributors
help us understand and appreciate the play as a literary work, as
theatrical text, as popular cultural phenomenon, and as political
reflection and intervention. Specific topics include how the play
thematizes gender and sexuality, race and ethnicity; the
postmodern incarnation of the Brechtian epic; AIDS and the
landscape of American politics. The range of different
international productions of Angels in America provides a
rich basis for discussion of its production history, including the
linguistic and cultural shifts required in its
"translation" from one stage to the next.
The last section of Approaching the
Millennium includes interviews with Tony Kushner and other key
creators and players involved in the original productions of Angels.
The interviews explore issues raised earlier in the volume and
dialogues between the creative artists who have shaped the play
and the critics and "theatricians" engaged in responding
to it.
Contributors to this volume are Arnold Aronson,
Art Borreca, Gregory W. Bredbeck, Michael Cadden, Nicholas de
Jongh, Allen J. Frantzen, Stanton B. Garner, Deborah R. Geis,
Martin Harries, Steven F. Kruger, James Miller, Framji Minwalla,
Donald Pease, Janelle Reinelt, David Román, David Savran, Ron
Scapp, and Alisa Solomon.
Deborah Geis is Associate Professor of English,
Queens College, City University of New York. Steven F. Kruger is
Professor and Chair of the Department of English, Queens College,
City University of New York.
