Overview
More heavy-going than part one but still offering plenty of food for thought, Angels in America: Part 2 Perestroika is a thoroughly satisfying watch.
The first half of the two-part play introduced us to the nine main characters featured in this 'Gay Fantasia on National Themes' set in 1980s America.
In part two writer Tony Kushner again creates short pacey scenes in order to hold the attention of the audience in what is a very wordy and long play. The jilted lovers Prior (Gareth Reeves) and Harper (Chelsie Preston-Crayford) get over their initial shock of abandonment and get mad. Meanwhile their ex-partners Louis, Dan Musgrove, and Joe Pitt, Matt Minto, wrestle with the morality of what they've done.
The previously minor characters of Joe's mother, Mia Blake, and nurse Belize, Jarrod Rawiri, are rounded out in this play. The Angel, Mia Blake, who is rather magnificently draped in silk, displays a less than soft approach when she takes on the very sick Prior. He surprises with his courage, choosing to fight for his right to live.
Poignant and illuminating moments are shared between the villainous AIDS-ridden lawyer Roy Cohn, Stephen Lovatt. and Belize. They may hate what each other stands for; Belize an openly gay man and Roy a morally corrupt sleazeball but when you are dying is no time to be alone.
The cast impresses again with its polished performances but Chelsie Preston-Crayford continues to deliver many of the stand out lines. The way she describes heartbreak in such visceral terms is very powerful. "When your heart breaks, you should die. But there's still the rest of you. There's your breasts, and your genitals, and they're amazingly stupid, like babies or faithful dogs, they don't get it, they just want him. Want him."
Artistic director Shane Bosher's production of Angels in America is a triumph. Don't miss it.
Photo credit: Andrew Malmo