Angels in America is really striking to me because of its political commentary. I saw this play a long time ago and it was really breathtaking in its direct assault of the Reagan administration and its seemingly ineffectual systems. Systems that valued capital gains over people and forced people to hide, lie and make choices that were clearly detrimental to themselves and others. There is a lot of humor in the dialogue which I appreciate given what the characters are facing. The dialogue is very tight in that it is very 'in your face' a lot of the time. I definitely think there is a a lot about movement, abandonment, right & wrong and forgiveness woven throughout. I liked that we see a few of the 'worst'characters in positions of both oppressed and oppressor (Cohn and Pitt). I love the characters 'Belize' and 'Harper' and the notion that San Francisco is the place where God's angels are living and the juxtaposition that at the time the play was written, and maybe still, there was a strong conservative discourse that held that San Fransisco was the seat of 'hell' and nothing but immoral freaks went there.
M'Bwende Anderson
They thing that I love about this play which I mentioned in my own post is how it is able to make all that political commentary while still weaving a really beautiful and intricate story.
ReplyDelete