Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes

(Belvoir Street Theatre)

Belvoir Street is re-staging 'Angels in America' the Pulitzer Prize winning work that tells of the rise of AIDS in the United States in the era of an unsympathetic President Reagan.

The work is presented in two parts which can be viewed independently or as a pair although I wouldn't recommend just attending Part 2 without having seen the stronger Part 1.

Part 1 'Millennium Approaches' tells the twin stories of Louis and his boyfriend Prior who has been diagnosed with AIDS and of the lawyer Roy Cohn whose past involved the infamous McCarthy witch hunt of the 1950s and the trial of the Rosenbergs, executed as Communist spies in 1953, who is mentoring Joe, a newly married Mormon, struggling with his sexuality.

Part 2 'Perestroika' advances these intermingled relationships and also delves further into spiritual themes which I suspect play more into the psyche of church going North Americans than we heathens down under.

Part 1 runs for about three hours and ten minutes whilst Part 2 runs for about three hours and forty minutes. Some will see the two parts on the same day as we did yesterday. Others will, perhaps wisely, separate their viewings by days or even weeks. It is a matter of personal preference and capacity to sit on a hard theatre seat for a solid seven hours. There are four short intervals and the plays include adult themes, the depiction of sex acts and nudity.

We had no problem with Part 1 which seemed to fly by in no time at all. This portion is brilliantly written and a wonderful mix of drama and comedy with no flat moments. Part 2 is less successful with the spiritual aspects a bit of a mystery to me, especially the convocation scene in heaven. Thankfully there is still a sufficient amount of the earlier drama and comedy present. I doubt that Part 2 would suffer too much if it was pruned by about 45 minutes.

This production is elevated by exceptional staging and acting neither of which flag at any stage.

Part 1: ★★★★★
Part 2: ★★★★