News & Reviews

Dark 'Angels'
Second part of play doesn’t disappoint – or lose its edge
April 7, 2006
By Patricia Miller Arts & Entertainment Editor

I've never seen a play as ambitious in its themes as Tony Kushner's spellbinding "Angels in America." The playwright warms up by tackling AIDS, political corruption in the Reagan era and hate for homosexuals, blacks and Jews. Then he throws in the dilemma of whether to leave one's lover once she or he has turned sick and unattractive, self-loathing, Mormonism and a women's ability to fight her way out of an unhappy marriage.

After such throat clearing, Kushner goes for the cosmic: should the world continue to evolve or stay as it is?

Such a list could make Kushner's play sound like a do-gooding lecture, but it's not. The playwright's positions are convincingly embodied in intriguing characters.

This is the second part of the play. FLC staged Part I last November. The director, Theresa Carson, says that you can enjoy Part II without having seen Part I, and it's true. I was happy I'd seen both, but I went with a colleague who hadn't seen Part I, and she enjoyed it without feeling puzzled.

The cast has changed since November with a few exceptions. Carson said she chose among the people who showed up for auditions, and not all of the previous cast did. And there's an interesting director swap. In Part I, Carson looked after the costumes while Ginny Davis directed. In Part 2, the women have changed places.

Two talented players are still around. Joseph Martinez is still Belize, the smart, compassionate, former drag-queen nurse. At the early age of a sophomore in college, Martinez has learned the difficult skill of listening intelligently on stage. Besides that, he delivers his lines with clarity, style and humor. He also briefly reprises his role as Mr. Lies, the supernatural, roller-skating smoothie and wicked tempter.

Geoff Johnson was Joe in Part I, a closeted gay Mormon husband who left his terrified, agoraphobic wife (the touching, persuasive Julia Schneider). This time he's back as Roy Cohn, the vicious Joe McCarthy henchman who really existed and died of AIDS in real life as he does in the play, which is set in 1986. It first opened on Broadway two weeks before President Clinton was inaugurated.
Johnson outdoes himself as Cohn. The relish with which he attacks his loud-mouthed, crass, ugly part is a wonder to behold. I wonder if he prepared by studying the oratorical techniques of Bill O'Reilly and Rush Limbaugh.

The other real character, or her ghost, is Ethel Rosenberg. In reality, Cohn was largely responsible for her execution as a spy. In the play, her ghost accompanies Cohn to his death. She's played adroitly by Emily Flood, who also tackles Joe's mother and a blind Bolshevik. Flood is sure-handed in the demanding assignment of playing well above her age.

Carson has chosen a presentation pioneered by Bertholt Brecht, with actors playing multiple roles and changing the scenes on a bare set with didactic slides displayed across the back wall. It's a clear solution to the staging, but the play's supernatural content offers more opportunities for exciting special effects than are realized here.
Joe this time is Christopher Calagias. His character is trying out his first gay affair with Louis (reprised convincingly from Part 1 by Stephen Juhl), who has also left his lover Prior (James Johnson), who is dying of AIDS. Joe and Lewis are required to enact suggestive under-the-clothes fumbling, which they carry off with aplomb. They also stage a frightening fight.

The show's other fight is between Prior and The Angel (Victoria McKinley). They wrestle because he refuses the prophetic task she's given him. McKinley has found a loud, unearthly voice for her angel, one that you might describe as squeaking, but it's deeper than that, and you can understand most of her words. Among The Angel's supernatural powers is the ability to give Prior an orgasm from far across the stage.
Johnson as Prior is a frail, endearing figure. He looks like a young David Caruso and keeps the sympathy with his character, who is dealing with a bewildering cosmic conflict while he's near death.

This is a rare chance to see a masterfully written play. Full marks to the Fort Lewis company for giving us the opportunity.