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Monday, Dec 01, 2008
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ANGELS IN AMERICA
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| ANGELS IN AMERICA | |
| by Miryam Gordon -
SGN A&E Writer ANGELS IN AMERICA: MILLENNIUM APPROACHES BY TONY KUSHNER DIRECTED BY MARIDEE SLATER ABSURD REALITY THEATRE THROUGH AUGUST 10 ANGELS IN AMERICA: PERESTROIKA BY TONY KUSHNER DIRECTED BY DAVID SHIEH REACT THEATRE THROUGH AUGUST 10 Many theater types consider Angels In America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes, by Tony Kushner, to be one of the greatest plays ever written. This is a sprawling play, spanning six plus hours, generally done in two parts, that delves deeply into philosophical ideals of the meaning of life, love and whether angels are real, and that encapsulates the 1980s in the time of AIDS and Gay rights clashing and clanging for attention. Part of its genius is that it's incredibly funny, at the very same moments it's terribly tragic. The kind of laugh-and-cry-at-the-same-time moments where the characters themselves are reacting or where the audience finds relief in the humor while recognizing the pain. There are three basic intersecting stories: a heterosexual couple, Joe and Harper, who are falling apart due to Harper's increasingly living in fantasyland and Joe's refusal to admit he's Gay; Louis and Prior, who are falling apart due to Prior's descent into the illness of AIDS and Louis' inability to handle sickness; Roy Cohn, the famous or infamous lawyer of the Republican Right, who falls ill with AIDS and refuses to acknowledge the disease and instead publicizes his illness as "liver cancer." The intersections start with Joe refusing a position in Justice (the U.S. Department of Justice) offered him by Roy Cohn, and then finding himself drawn to Louis, as Louis abandons Prior. There is also a metaphysical and fantastical element where some of these characters find themselves in dreams with each other, even without actually meeting in real life. Prior dreams that he is being prepared for a visitation by an angel and is told he is a Prophet. On the other hand, other people see the angel when they are not dreaming, or experience waking fantasies - so it's not all contained in dreams. Back to the action in Seattle: we have the opportunity to see both parts of this long, involved work, but at two different theaters. Millennium Approaches is being done by Absurd Reality Theatre and Perestroika is being done by ReAct Theatre. Both companies do a good job of bringing the whole scope of the work to the stage. Both productions move through the stories at a good clip, but even so, be prepared for three hour productions for each. It's the nature of Kushner's work! One of the best parts of Millennium Approaches, in Absurd Reality Theatre's production, is the music. The collection of songs and their application is a very effective complement to the scenes. Shane Regan is credited with sound design, but has collected unique, mostly Seattle-based musicians, giving the production a very local feel. The use of this music playing during scene changes evokes mood changes as set up for the next action. Director Maridee Slater assembled a strong cast, headed by Chris MacDonald, as Roy Cohn, who is called on to create a hateful human being whose mantra is "power." Cohn was not above breaking the law, over and over again, in the quest for clout. In AIA, Cohn claims that his most important accomplishment was the putting to death of Ethel Rosenberg, in 1953. He hated Communism and sought to make examples of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, who were accused of spying and giving the Russians information that led them to develop the atomic bomb well before anyone thought them capable of it. However, his unethical behavior and willingness to lie made the likelihood of their innocence more than probable. Their execution linked him to Senator Joseph McCarthy and McCarthy's "commie" purge, becoming McCarthy's chief counsel. MacDonald portrays a vigorous and ruthless character who declares that homosexuals are people with no power and since he has power, he is not a homosexual - he is a man who has sex with other men. MacDonald is loud and brash and repellent, totally appropriately so. He is balanced by Jeff Orton, playing the role of Prior. Prior is fairly comfortable being Gay, but scared of the growth of illness inside him. He is living at a time when the diagnosis of AIDS was a death sentence and the progressive nature of the disease was ugly, unattractive and painful. Prior is abandoned by Louis, yet has the strength to persevere without his love. Orton says, in his bio, that he is reprising the role from another production in Colorado. Orton's experience with the role helps him portray the complex emotions of a dying character. Orton finds all the humor possible in his situation, especially as he tries to cope with dreaming of an angel and finding himself orgasmic in her presence. Louis is played by Carter Davis. Carter conveys a nice Jewish boy demeanor and finds reasonable ways to give himself excuses for abandoning his sick boyfriend to die alone. Jalyn Green plays the Mormon, Joe, who struggles with accepting his homosexuality and finally understands that his secret might have ruined his marriage. Melissa Fenwick portrays a confused and fantasy-prone Harper with earnest appeal. Green and Fenwick play well off each other, as the marriage disintegrates entirely. Millennium Approaches ends with the Angel finally appearing to Prior. Perestroika picks up from there and brings Prior to a meeting in Heaven where he is declared a Prophet. Prior struggles with his connection to religion and his belief in or disbelief of angels and Heaven and God. Joe also struggles with his religion. Joe is Mormon and his wife, Harper, refers to herself as "Jack Mormon" or a Mormon who is inferior and flawed. Perestroika's themes focus on an attempt to explain huge concepts of belief and spirituality and what life is for. David Shieh, Artistic Director of ReAct and director of Perestroika, says that the version of Perestroika that he is using is one that was revised by Kushner after the play debuted. Kushner had a long time to develop Part 1, but Part 2 was being written as Part 1 was debuting. Perestroika did not have as much time to be polished. "The original version was published in 1992...the revised version was completed in the fall of 1995 and by all accounts was not published until 1996. Many scenes have swapped order, particularly in Act 1. Some text which certain audiences could find upsetting have been rewritten or cut, some dialog has been fine-tuned and edited, some monologues shortened, some elaborated on, etc. We actually had our cast look at both versions when we began rehearsals and were surprised at how much was altered. We all felt that the revision was much, much stronger. Kushner alludes, in his notes, that he made these minor changes to improve the script. Please note, too, that in our staging, we have implemented Kushner's suggested cuts." This is the first time this revised version is performed in Seattle. Of course, the entire cast is different for this production, but again, the scope and grandeur of Kushner's play is evident. This is a unique opportunity to see how two different theaters create a similar piece. In Perestroika, Angela DiMarco plays Harper and her eagerness punches up the humor a little more. Here, Harper is more delusional, but less depressed. DiMarco's energy carries this production along, particularly in strange scenes in a museum, where the diorama comes to life. This part of the play is also more overtly sexual and there is more sexual interaction between actors, always a challenge in live theater. Alex Garnett, as Louis, and Mats Ecklund, as Joe, get pretty explicit, but sometimes have a good chunk of humor to go along with some of their clinches, which helps lessen the sexual confrontation for the audience. Brandon Simmons, as Prior, has a hysterical moment as he finds himself aroused and orgasmic at the presence of the Angel (Toni Rose). The Angel has a lot more to do in Part 2, so Toni Rose stands out and has more chance to display her attractions. Rose pouts prettily and gets good laughs at her peevish Angel. ShawnJ West as Belize, friend to Louis and Prior and nurse to Roy Cohn, also has more to do in Part 2. West duels well with Dennis Kleinsmith as Cohn, when Cohn insults and badgers him. West handily works both the humor and the pathos in scenes with Prior, as they cope with Prior's illness. Kleinsmith has a lot of pain to play and must lie in bed the entire play, as Roy Cohn's disease takes its toll on him. His portrayal is appropriately evil and vile and racist, but he loses a lot of the culturally Jewish aspect of Cohn, and doesn't really sound very "New Yorkish." His best scene is a moment when he tricks the ghost of Ethel Rosenberg into thinking he has died. Edward Ross' scenic design includes an ingenious elevator-like doorway, which opens for angels or for dioramas or other stage business. Since the stage elements must be spare (so many locations and scene changes that it calls for that kind of simplicity), this helps give more depth to the action. Projected images of places and fountains instantly change locations. Lighting by Evan Merryman Ritter and sound by Roger Tang get a work-out in Part 2, with lots of paranormal, fantasy elements appearing and disappearing. Perestroika allows all the characters to figure out their connections to each other, as Louis finds out how Joe knows Roy Cohn (Belize tells him so) and Joe's mother (Kelly Hyde), who has moved from Salt Lake City, gets involved with Prior and Cohn. The characters realize that there is no stopping change, which is inevitable. Angels in America is a seminal play in the documentation of the AIDS crisis in the mid 80s, and touches on the struggle for recognition that the Gay Rights movement cried out for, in the years before the founding of ACT-UP. It reminds us how terribly painful AIDS was at first, before the possibility of "managing" the disease. It reminds us how stigmatizing AIDS was in America, with its focus on homosexuality. It demonstrates the reality that loving someone is complicated, no matter what the sex of your partner is. Both of these productions end at the same time. Try to see one of them, if not both, and know that if you see Part 1 first, you'll get the jokes better in Part 2. For more information, go to www.absurdreality.com or call 206-443-2222 (Seattle Rep) and www.reacttheatre.org or call 206-364-3283. Comments on reviews go to sgncritic@gmail.com. |
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