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 As with all epic works, it is often hard to comprehend the composite components in order to fully appreciate the whole. This is true somewhat of Tony Kushner’s Angels in America, yet in the joint Headlong and Lyric Hammersmith major revival in the UK since its premiere in 1993, Daniel Kramer certainly does a superb job at presenting the crucible of tensions in nineteen eighties’ Reganite New York where a city, a country and then the world were held ransom by the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome.
Kushner’s Gay Fantasia on National Themes is an epic in the true sense of the word; spanning vast distances and times, the action of the seven hour, two part drama unfolds beyond the eyes of an audience, now potentially a little removed from the social politics of the eighties. So how relevant are the issues of a previous society today? More so than one would imagine. Yes, treatment of AIDS has vastly improved, yet we are still faced with a deadly and shockingly mis-understood conditioning still affecting a young demographic. Yet there is a greater purpose to Kushner’s writing, he is not only documenting, he is standing upon a platform and extends his narrative beyond mere socio historical documentation towards abstract notions of love and religion.
One thing is certain though, the power of the destructiveness of AIDS is something most have an understanding of and here is where the power of the drama lies. Fundamentally, Angels in America focuses upon the atrocities of the AIDS epidemic in America, ignored by Regan, denied by the gay community for too long and the stimulus for a building hysteria and distrust of homosexual men.
Both plays revolve around two couples who become interlinked in dream states and reality. Prior, the prophet, expertly realised by Mark Emerson, who really comes into his own in the second part, is diagnosed with AIDS; his boyfriend, Louis played by Adam Levy, commands the stage and perfectly portrays the torment of rationalising love when faced with losing the object of that commitment. Then there are Harper and Joe, two young Mormons living in Brooklyn. Harper’s neurosis is played with humour by Kirsty Bushell, whilst Jo-Stone-Fewings manages to evoke the true passionate confusion of accepting the truth about oneself as he struggles with the realisation of his homosexuality.
The Acid House design of neon props on a set of black reflects the chic urbanite design of the eighties where wealth was power and credibility was success no better understood in the character of Roy Cohn, the immoral lawyer, AIDS victim and closet homosexual, somewhat over acted by Greg Hicks. Attention was cleverly drawn to certain areas of the stage space and designer Soutra Gilmour does a superb job at bringing the world of the epic to life with seven hours of drama to represent on the not massive Lyric stage.
What Kushner does so incredibly well is to take the taboo subject of AIDS, what was to become the tombstone of Regan’s term of Presidency and give it a stage. The demands placed on relationships and the internal struggle of realising who you really are form entrancing sub stories yet the power of the writing is with the central gay relationship. Angels in America has dated in the ten years of its premiere, yet this does not detract from the sheer force of the narrative and passionate deconstruction of a minority’s fight against a deadly killer. The politics are strong, the sentiment is heavy yet there is a welcoming ambiguity when it comes to the presence of the Angels, left as caretakers to Earth, Kushner does not develop his Theology fully, leaving enough space to take something unique away from the play and take ownership of its ‘fantasia on national themes’.
Rob Drummer
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