“God is dead,” Nietzsche wrote in The Gay Science in 1882. One hundred years later, Prior Walter discovers that God, in fact, has merely wandered off.
This celestial factoid is revealed to Prior in the second half of Tony Kushner’s iconic Angels in America. The latter half of the seven-hour “Gay Fantasia on National Themes,” titled Perestroika, is currently on stage at the Corn Stock Winter Playhouse. Those who saw the first half, Millennium Approaches, last season will find a satisfying conclusion to the saga. Others who may be new to the story will have to work a little harder to catch up, but there’s much in director Dani Keil’s production to reward the effort.
Perestroika picks up pretty much precisely where Millennium Approaches left off. It is 1986 in New York. Prior Walter lies sick in his bed with AIDS. His former partner, Louis Ironson, continues to develop a new relationship with Mormon Republican Joe Pitt, who has left his emotionally unstable wife, Harper. Joe’s boss, McCarthyite demon Roy Cohn (inspired by the real-life closeted homosexual), slowly dies of AIDS in his hospital bed, attended by nurse and ex-drag queen Belize, while Joe’s Mormon mother, Hannah, fresh off the plane from Salt Lake City, works to bring her son and Harper back together.
Oh, and there’s the Angel that smashed through the ceiling of Prior’s apartment in the closing image of the first part of the play. And the ghost of Ethel Rosenberg haunting Roy as he dies. And figures from a diorama at the Mormon Museum who stroll out of the display to talk to Harper. And the fascinating, bird-like Principalities of the Earth whom Prior, apparently a Prophet of the Old Testament stripe, encounters when he visits Heaven with the Angel. No attempt to explain these bizarre elements will fit them neatly into any preconceived idea of drama. It helps if you don’t ask a lot of questions, or at least ask them later, when you have time to reflect.
Corn Stock’s production emphasizes the restructuring implied in the title: of society, of politics, of lives, of relationships—of, seemingly, the universe as God created it. The play finds its fundamental chemistry in the volatile and riveting reactions in the unlikeliest pairings: Verbal jousting between Roy and Belize, played here with fierce intensity by Clark Rians and Eric Gore; socio-political and emotional fencing between Louis and Joe, performed by Andrew Rhodenbaugh and Aaron Hoover; and the surprising and moving spark of affection between Hannah and Prior, in portrayals by Rebecca Frankel Clifton and Jacob Uhlman. Sarah Tilford has a surprising amount of fun with Harper, while Natalie Patrnchak turns in a dynamic and athletic performance as the Angel.
Overall, the performances are electrifying. Clifton, Uhlman, Gore, and Rians shine in their reprisal of roles from last season, while the newer performers slip seamlessly into their parts and inhabit them fully. The play can confound at times with its multiple levels of reality and the fugue of parallel scenes, but the cast never misses a step. It is in part a tribute to the design work of Liz Tanner and the direction of Keil that the evening proceeds so smoothly. If the piece drags at times, it can be attributed to Kushner’s style, which has been described as “overwrought.”
Theatregoers up to the challenge can see Angels in America: Perestroika at the Corn Stock Winter Playhouse November 13, 18, and 19. Tickets are $10 for adults and $7 for students and are available by calling 676-2196 or online at www.cornstocktheatre.com
Posted November 16, 2011
