BOOK/PLAY: Angels In America - Tony Kushner

Title: Angels In America
Author: Tony Kushner
Genre: Drama, Transcript of a play (1990)
Publisher: Nick Hern Books (2007)
Pages: Paperback, 289
Language: English
Rating: 10/10
Summary: 'A Gay Fantasia On National Themes' is the subtitle of this two part play. It tells the story of several interlinked people dealing with big issues of life, death and politics.
The first part 'Millenium Approaches' takes place in the late eighties when the USA -and the rest of the world- was struggling with AIDS, right wing politics and religion. The future seemed bleak.
The second part 'Perestroika' is more optimistic as the nation moves into the nineties and there may be a glimmer of hope for compassion, reason and healing.

Spoilerfree review
I first saw this through the TV-series that was made of the play in 2003. That's a little more structured than the original play, but watching it still was an overwhelming experience. I saw the play last year when it was performed by Dutch group Toneelgroep Amsterdam. Even in my own language the plot is too complex to explain. The characters connect on so many levels, I can't even begin to summarize. The actors all play several parts to emphasize their connections and show the metaphorical meaning of the characters and actions. It's just such an amazing story and it captures the confusing doom and gloom of the eighties perfectly.

I wish I could tell you about how Louis can't handle the illness of his lover Prior and how Prior has hallucinations and is talking to The Angel. Or about how he meets Harper who lives in a fantasy world because her husband Joe can't admit he's gay because his Mormon faith assures him that can not be. Or about how Joe's boss, right wing asshole attorney Roy Cohn is in the closet to preserve his power in politics.
But it's all so much more complicated than even those little summaries suggest, and no description can do it justice.
I really can't do anything but urge you to read this play or, better yet, watch it if you get a chance. Since it's not performed often (due to its massive lenght of five hours) you probably won't be able to, so you should definitely track down a DVD of the mini-series. It will be worth it.