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A review by billyjepma
Angels in America by Tony Kushner
5.0
"Nothing's lost forever. In this world, there is a kind of painful progress. Longing for what we've left behind, and dreaming ahead."
Tony Kushner's "Angels in America" is a two-play story––comprised of Part One: Millenium Approaches, and Part Two: Perestroika––that centers on the AIDS crisis in America in the 1980's. It's brash, profane, poetic, and often abstract, but I loved it. The characters are almost universally unlikable and irredeemably bad, selfish people, but it's in their selfishness and self-destruction that Kushner finds a deeply moving, human heart. His cast of character are intricately tied together through a variety of clever plot twists and almost-real visions or dream sequences, but it works.
You feel for these people, these often ugly and hurting people, and it's in their vulnerable brokenness that I as a reader grew to love them. Maybe that doesn't make sense––I'm not sure if it even makes sense to me––but there wasn't a single character I could relate to and yet there also wasn't a single character I disliked.
Kushner's dialogue is dense and powerful, and every line hits like a hammer. He's sharp and clever and has a knack for poetically profane vulgarity. Even when the play delves into the abstract and metaphorical, his characters somehow remain grounded in spite of the elevated environments they're suddenly inhabiting. It's a dizzying feat of a story that I'm going to need time to process.
This is a weird and wonderful play that's at least a little offensive and more than a little brilliant. It has a lot to say about politics, race, sexuality, religion, and our responses to all those topics and more. I highly encourage you to read it, to be confronted by it, to let it make you uncomfortable, because in that discomfort there's something these "Angels in America" might have to teach you.
Tony Kushner's "Angels in America" is a two-play story––comprised of Part One: Millenium Approaches, and Part Two: Perestroika––that centers on the AIDS crisis in America in the 1980's. It's brash, profane, poetic, and often abstract, but I loved it. The characters are almost universally unlikable and irredeemably bad, selfish people, but it's in their selfishness and self-destruction that Kushner finds a deeply moving, human heart. His cast of character are intricately tied together through a variety of clever plot twists and almost-real visions or dream sequences, but it works.
You feel for these people, these often ugly and hurting people, and it's in their vulnerable brokenness that I as a reader grew to love them. Maybe that doesn't make sense––I'm not sure if it even makes sense to me––but there wasn't a single character I could relate to and yet there also wasn't a single character I disliked.
Kushner's dialogue is dense and powerful, and every line hits like a hammer. He's sharp and clever and has a knack for poetically profane vulgarity. Even when the play delves into the abstract and metaphorical, his characters somehow remain grounded in spite of the elevated environments they're suddenly inhabiting. It's a dizzying feat of a story that I'm going to need time to process.
This is a weird and wonderful play that's at least a little offensive and more than a little brilliant. It has a lot to say about politics, race, sexuality, religion, and our responses to all those topics and more. I highly encourage you to read it, to be confronted by it, to let it make you uncomfortable, because in that discomfort there's something these "Angels in America" might have to teach you.