Angels in America
Angels in America is a 1991 play in two parts by Tony Kushner that examines of AIDS and homosexuality in America in the 1980s.
| Angels in America: Millennium Approaches | |
|---|---|
 Image from the HBO production | |
| Written by | Tony Kushner |
| Characters | Prior Walter Roy Cohn Joe Pitt Harper Pitt Hannah Pitt Louis Ironson Belize Ethel Rosenberg Homeless Woman Angel |
| Date premiered | May 1991 |
| Place premiered | w:Eureka Theatre Company San Francisco, California |
| Original language | English |
| Genre | Drama |
| Setting | New York City, Salt Lake City and elsewhere, 1985–1986 |
| Angels in America: Perestroika | |
|---|---|
| Written by | Tony Kushner |
| Characters | Prior Walter Roy Cohn Joe Pitt Harper Pitt Hannah Pitt Louis Ironson Belize Ethel Rosenberg Homeless Woman Angel |
| Date premiered | November 8, 1992 |
| Place premiered | w:Mark Taper Forum Los Angeles, California |
| Original language | English |
| Genre | Drama |
| Setting | New York City and elsewhere, 1986–1990 |
Factual Information
According to Jacobus, Kushner was surprised that both liberals and conservatives liked the play because Kushner thought that it attacked many of the conservative views (1636).
Biography
Study Guide
Part One: Millennium Approaches
Act One: Bad News
- Act One, Scene 1
- Act One, Scene 2
- Act One, Scene 3
- Act One, Scene 4
- Act One, Scene 5
- Act One, Scene 6
- Act One, Scene 7
- Act One, Scene 8
- Act One, Scene 9
Act Two: In Vitro
- Act Two, Scene 1
- Act Two, Scene 2
- Act Two, Scene 3
- Act Two, Scene 4
- Act Two, Scene 5
- Act Two, Scene 6
- Act Two, Scene 7
- Act Two, Scene 8
- Act Two, Scene 9
- Act Two, Scene 10
Act Three: Not-Yet-Conscious, Foward Dawning
- Act Three, Scene 1
- Act Three, Scene 2
- Act Three, Scene 3
- Act Three, Scene 4
- Act Three, Scene 5
- Act Three, Scene 6
- Act Three, Scene 7
Part Two: Perestroika
Act One: Spooj
- Act One, Scene 1
- Act One, Scene 2
- Act One, Scene 3
- Act One, Scene 4
- Act One, Scene 5
- Act One, Scene 6
Act Two: The Epistle
Act Three: Borborygmi
Act Four: John Brown's Body
- Act Four, Scene 1
- Act Four, Scene 2
- Act Four, Scene 3
- Act Four, Scene 4
- Act Four, Scene 5
- Act Four, Scene 6
- Act Four, Scene 7
- Act Four, Scene 8
- Act Four, Scene 9
Act Five: Heaven, I'm in Heaven
- Act Five, Scene 1
- Act Five, Scene 2
- Act Five, Scene 3
- Act Five, Scene 4
- Act Five, Scene 5
- Act Five, Scene 6
- Act Five, Scene 7
- Act Five, Scene 8
- Act Five, Scene 9
- Act Five, Scene 10
Epilogue: Bethesda
Characters
Norman Arriaga AKA: Belize
Major Themes
Angels in America is in many ways a play about conversion.The experience of HIV illness is often conceived as involving a conversion of the self, and Prior's discovery that he has AIDS is depicted in part as making him a new person: I'm a lessionnaire". The Angel's visitation to Prior takes the form of a mission of conversion:given a new identity, Prior is like Joseph Smith, to become Prophet of a new dispensation. Indeed, in the course of the play all its characters undergo startling shifts in identity. Hannah is not only physically transplanted to New York but becomes "noticeably different--she looks like a New Yorker. Roy , who clings tenaciously to his professional status a a lawyer,is disbarred just before his death. Harper moves through a period of dysfunction to strike out on her own, choosing "the real San Francisco, on earth," with its "unspeakable beauty" (Kruger 4).
Kushner uses split scenes to make more explicit the contrapuntal relationship between these seemingly disconnected narrative worlds. Roy's meeting with Joe, to discuss the junior attorney's future as a "Roy-Boy" in Washington, occurs alongside the scene in which Louis is sodomized in the Central Park Rambles by a leather clad mama's boy.Louis's mini-symposium at the coffee shop is simultaneous with Prior's medical checkup at an outpatient clinic. Dreams,ghosts, and a flock of dithering, hermaphroditic angels are also used to break through the play's realistic structure, to conjoin seemingly disparate characters, and to reveal the poetic resonances and interconnectedness of everyday life (McNulty 4).
Major Symbols
Influences
The biggest influences on this play would defiantly have to be American society. Kushner brings up many problems that he has with the country. Form his problems with President Regan to the discrimination of people in American society.
Study Questions
- Many of the gay characters struggle with the question of how their sexuality should be, and several come out in different ways during the course of the play. Discuss the meaning of the closet — are closeted characters different from uncloseted ones? What implications does coming out have for self and community?
- "It's law not justice," Joe tells Louis during their final breakup. Discuss the themes of law and justice as they appear in the play. Is Joe correct that the two are separate entities? Or does the play encourage a more visionary potential of the law?
- Belize stands out as exceptionally compassionate and good, yet at times seems two-dimensional. Which view is correct? Is Belize a virtuous stereotype or a complex moral authority?
- What does the subtitle "A Gay Fantasia on National Themes" suggest? What national themes are evident in the plays? What is the relationship between "gay" and "national"?
- Perestroika was the term for Mikhail Gorbachev's policy of political and economic reform in the Soviet Union. In what ways does the play represent the possibility of perestroika in America? Is this an appropriate title for part two?
- Choosing at least two examples (The Rosenberg Trial, The San Francisco Earthquake, Chernobyl, The Reagan Administration), analyze the role of history in the plays. Does Kushner more or less depict events as they happened? If not, what dramatic and thematic purposes does he serve by shading the facts?
- As a "fantasia," Angels in America is a major departure from prevailing theatrical realism, with detours into the religious and the supernatural — angels, ghosts, apparitions, and visions appear over and over. What effect do these fantastical elements have on the play as a whole? Go beyond a simple analysis of plot to consider the implications for characters, messages, and themes.
- Is there any connection between the Angel, and Mr. Lies. If there is a connection, is it a friendly one?
Additional Resources
- Larger Than Life - A review of Angels in America by Tony Buchsbaum.
- HBO Interview with Tony Kusher
Works Cited
- Garner, Stanton B. "Angels in America: The Millennium and Postmodern Memory," in Approaching the Millenium, Essays on Angels in America, edited by Deborah R. Geis and Steven F. Kruger, University of Michigan Press, 1987: pp.173-84.
- Glenn, Lane A.. "Angels in America." Drama for Students. Gale, 1999.
- Kruger, Steven F. "Identity and Conversion in Angels in America."in Approaching the Millennium: Essays on "Angels in America." edited by Deborah R. Geis and Steven F.Kruger, University of Michigan Press, 1997: pp. 151-69.
- Kushner, Tony. Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes. New York: Theatre Communications Group, 1995.
- Layman, Bruccoli Clark. "Tony Kushner,"in Dictionary of Literary Biography, Volume 228: Twentienth Century American Dramatists, Second Series. Edited by Christopher J. Wheatley.
- McNutty, Charles. "Angels in America: Tony Kushner's Theses on the Philosophy of History." Modern Drama 39,no.1 (Spring 1996): 84-96.
- Meisner, Natalie. Messing with the Idyllic: The Performance of Femininity in Kushner's Angels in America. The Yale Journal of Criticism 16,no.1 (2003): 177-189.
- Quinn, John R. "Corpus Juris Tertium: Redemptive Jurisprudence in Angels in America." Theatre Journal 48,no.1 (March 1996): 79-90.
- Trilling, Lionel, et. al. Bloom’s Period Studies: Modern American Drama. Chelsea House Publishers, 2005.
- Jacobus, Lee A., Ed. The Beford Introduction to Drama. 3rd Ed. Boston: Bedford, 1997.