Presented by: University of Adelaide Theatre Guild
Reviewed: 4 May, 2024
Set during the AIDS epidemic and performed as a six-hour play, Angels in America doesn’t demand suspended disbelief in its metaphorical telling of capitalism-gone-wrong, rather it invites us into the disbelief and embraces us through hyper-real fantasy.
The multiple Tony Award-winning, six-hour epic Angels in America opens with a rabbi eulogising Louis Ironside’s grandmother. The rabbi has never met the deceased but knows her kind: she crossed the ocean in a boat and stepped ashore to a lifetime of struggle, fighting every single day to make the American dream work, for her family and for her community. Soon, says the rabbi, all the old ones, like Louis’s grandmother, will be gone, so what will become of their legacy in the hands of this younger generation? It’s 1985 in New York City, and that generation is dying of AIDS.
Tony Krushner won a Pulitzer Prize for Angels in America, his script solid and moving, the dialogue intelligent and urgent. To say it captures a pivotal time in gay history is to limit its scope. It’s as much about American capitalism and racism as it is about the AIDS epidemic. Originally produced as Part One: Millennium Approaches in 1990 and Part Two: Perestroika in 1991, the University of Adelaide Theatre Guild is giving people the chance to view both parts spread over a four-week period, or as a single long-haul experience over a day / night with a three-hour interval. However you choose to watch it, do watch it.
At the funeral, Louis’s partner, Prior, tells him he’s dying of AIDS, and it’s not difficult to discern that Louis won’t be able to handle what’s to come. While he pontificates on conservatism ruining democracy and his own Jewish guilt ruining his life, Louis’s partner Prior runs fevers and experiences erotic, holy visions. Meanwhile, republican Mormon Joe Pitt struggles with his closeted homosexuality while his wife, Harper, deals with depression by popping Valium and hallucinating. Fantastically, Prior and Harper enter each other’s deliriums. The first time this happens it’s thrilling, and it gets better each time thereafter.
One of the drama’s main players is Roy Cohn, the true-life chief counsel to McCarthy who famously prosecuted Julius and Ethel Rosenberg for spying for the communists, leading to their 1953 execution. He’s Joe’s mentor, and as he lies in his hospital bed, slowly and painfully dying from AIDS – which he vehemently denied having, both in the script and in real life, blaming liver cancer instead – it’s the ghost of Ethel Rosenberg who sits by his side. The stories of Louis, Prior, Harper, Joe and Roy unfold separately while constantly melding, gifting us with wonderfully complex characters and divine plotting.
The entire cast is more than impressive, with Brant Eustice’s Roy Cohn full of grace and power, Casmira Lorien’s Harper Pitt glowing with doomy sarcasm, Matthew Houston’s Prior Walter ecstatically startled by everything his illness and betrayal entails, and Rachel Dalton’s Angel curiously mesmerising. They utilise every inch of the small stage, switching back and forth between storylines and crashing into each other’s scenes, always caught in a kind of dream scenario as the adept lighting and barely-there smoke from the smoke machine work a treat in reflecting the mentally challenging and spiritual aspects of the script as well as capturing the overarching fug of a sickness gone vital. Similarly, the set and its mood highlight the pressing sense of confusion and release each character undergoes. Director Hayley Horton has nailed the entire show.
AIDS, depression, political anxiety – it sounds heavy, doesn’t it? And if it wasn’t for the laugh-out-loud humour, it might be. Mind you, it’s not knee-slapping funny, nor is it gratuitous, pandering to an audience fatigued by time-indulgent tragedy. The jokes expertly lend an inspired balance to the thematic heft. But watch out for offensive racist language, and if you’re curious about the timing of a play highlighting antisemitism and Jewish tradition, it’s good to note that the disclaimer in the program recognises the ongoing volatile history of Israel and Palestine, and ‘no position is taken on the part of those involved in this production.’ So take it all in, the beauty and the horror, and settle in for an unsettling and very long ride, one that definitely won’t have you asking if we’re there yet.
Reviewed by Heather Taylor-Johnson
Photo credit: Richard Parkhill
Venue: Little Theatre, University of Adelaide
Season: Until 25 May 2024. Visit their website for full production details.
Duration: Each Part runs approx. 3 hours each with 2 intervals apiece.
Tickets (per part): Full price: $25 / Concession: $20
Bookings: https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing/1156128?
