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Event
ANGELS IN AMERICA, the first part, Millennium Approaches
ANGELS IN AMERICA, Part One: Millennium Approaches, will be performed at Andrews Living Arts Studio, 23 NW 5th St., Fort Lauderdale, Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, August 12th through September 4th at 7:30 PM. Preview August 11th.
Saturday, August 27th will be at 5pm with Special ArtWalk Events Following.
Tickets are $24.95 in advance and $29.95 at the door.
The play received its world premiere in May 1991 in a production performed in San Francisco. The play merited inclusion in Harold Bloom's controversial list of what he considered to be the most important works of literature, published in 1994 -The Western Canon.
Set in New York City in 1985, Act One of Millennium Approaches introduces us to the central characters. As the play opens, Louis Ironson, a neurotic, gay Jew learns his lover, WASP Prior Walter, has AIDS. As the play and Prior's illness progress, Louis becomes unable to cope and moves out. Meanwhile, closeted homosexual Mormon and Republican law clerk Joe Pitt is offered a major promotion & move to Washington, DC, by his mentor, the McCarthyist lawyer Roy Cohn. Joe doesn't immediately take the job because he feels he has to check with his Valium-addicted, pill- popping wife, Harper, who is unwilling to move. Roy is himself deeply closeted, and soon discovers that he has AIDS.
As the play progresses, Prior is visited by an angel who proclaim him to be a prophet; Joe finds himself struggling to reconcile his religion with his sexuality; Louis struggles with his guilt about leaving Prior and begins a relationship with Joe; Harper's mental health deteriorates as she realizes that Joe is gay; Joe's mother, Hannah, moves to New York to attempt to look after Harper and Roy finds himself in the hospital, reduced to the companionship of his nurse, Belize, a former drag queen and Prior's best friend, who meanwhile deals with Louis's constant demands for updates on Prior's health.
The subplot involving Cohn is the most political aspect of the play. Portrayed as a self-loathing, power-hungry hypocrite, he prides himself on his political connections and influence, which he has amassed through decades of corruption. In the play, he recollects with pride his role in having Ethel Rosenberg executed for treason. He lies alone in the hospital, dying of AIDS, as he receives the news that the N.Y. State Bar Association has just disbarred him, destroying his final hope of dying as a lawyer.
The play ends on a note of optimism. After his friends procure for him a stash of AZT, Prior is still alive and managing to live with AIDS in 1990.
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LocationAndrews Living Arts Studio
23 NW 5th Street
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301
United States
Categories
| Kid Friendly: Yes! |
| Dog Friendly: No |
| Non-Smoking: Yes! |
| Wheelchair Accessible: No |
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