Angels in America - Tony Kushner - 1992
Introduction
Tony Kushner's two-part play, Angels in America (1992), has been lauded by critics and audiences alike as one of the most important American plays of the twentieth century. Set during the dawn of the AIDS crisis in the 1980s, Angels in America freezes a period in American history when homosexuals were firmly outside of the mainstream, AIDS was a death sentence, and political leaders were preaching compassion without showing it. The play captures the fear, hate, ignorance, and prejudice that shrouded the AIDS epidemic in its early years, and shows the toll of the disease on individual health, social status, and identity, as well as on society as a whole.
The main plotline of Angels in America revolves around two couples living in New York City in the mid-1980s. Within those two pairs, each of the four individuals is struggling to come to terms with his or her identity. Louis and Prior are a gay couple living together until Prior falls ill with AIDS. Joe and Harper Pitt are a married Mormon couple; Harper is addicted to Valium, and Joe is a closeted homosexual. As the play progresses, the couples' lives become increasingly entwined as they search for ways to understand their places in the world.
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