Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes

Revised and Complete Edition

Tony Kushner

• Publisher: Theatre Communications Group
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9781559367691
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: American Drama
• Index: Literature

A revised edition of one of the most influential plays of our time, published with a new foreword by the author.

Part One:

MILLENNIUM

APPROACHES

THE CHARACTERS

IN MILLENNIUM APPROACHES

ROY M. COHN,* a successful New York lawyer and unofficial power broker.

JOSEPH PORTER PITT, chief clerk for Justice Theodore Wilson of the Federal Court of Appeals, Second Circuit.

HARPER AMATY PITT, Joe’s wife, an agoraphobic with a mild Valium addiction.

LOUIS IRONSON, a word processor working for the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.

PRIOR WALTER, Louis’s boyfriend. Occasionally works as a club designer or caterer, otherwise lives very modestly but with great style off a small trust fund.

HANNAH PORTER PITT, Joe’s mother, currently residing in Salt Lake City, living off her deceased husband’s army pension.

BELIZE, a registered nurse and former drag queen whose name was originally Norman Arriaga; Belize is a drag name that stuck.

THE ANGEL, four divine emanations, Fluor, Phosphor, Lumen and Candle; manifest in One: the Continental Principality of America. She has magnificent steel-gray wings.

Other Characters in Millennium Approaches

RABBI ISIDOR CHEMELWITZ, an orthodox Jewish rabbi, played by the actor playing Hannah.

MR. LIES, Harper’s imaginary friend, a travel agent, played by the actor playing Belize. In style of dress and speech he suggests a jazz musician; he always wears a large lapel badge emblazoned “IOTA” (International Order of Travel Agents).

THE MAN IN THE PARK, played by the actor playing Prior.

THE VOICE, the voice of the Angel.

HENRY, Roy’s doctor, played by the actor playing Hannah.

EMILY, a nurse, played by the actor playing the Angel.

MARTIN HELLER, a Reagan Administration Justice Department flackman, played by the actor playing Harper.

SISTER ELLA CHAPTER, a Salt Lake City real-estate saleswoman, played by the actor playing the Angel.

PRIOR I, the ghost of a dead Prior Walter from the thirteenth century, played by the actor playing Joe. A blunt, grim, dutiful, medieval farmer, he speaks abruptly and rather loudly with a guttural Yorkshire accent.

PRIOR 2, the ghost of a dead Prior Walter from the seventeenth century, played by the actor playing Roy. A Londoner, a Restoration-era sophisticate and bon vivant; he speaks with an elegant Received English accent.

THE ESKIMO, played by the actor playing Joe.

A HOMELESS WOMAN, an unmedicated psychotic who lives on the streets of the South Bronx; played by the actor playing the Angel.

ETHEL ROSENBERG, played by the actor playing Hannah.

* The character Roy M. Cohn is based on the late Roy M. Cohn (1927–1986), who was all too real; for the most part the acts attributed to the character Roy, such as his illegal conferences with Judge Kaufmann during the trial of Ethel Rosenberg, are to be found in the historical record. But this Roy is a work of dramatic fiction; his words are my invention, and liberties have been taken.

Millennium Approaches is dedicated to Mark Bronnenberg

In a murderous time

the heart breaks and breaks

and lives by breaking.

—STANLEY KUNITZ, “The Testing-Tree”

ACT ONE:

Bad News

October–November 1985

Scene 1

The end of October. Rabbi Isidor Chemelwitz alone onstage with a small coffin. It is a rough pine box with two wooden pegs, one at the foot and one at the head, holding the lid in place. A prayer shawl embroidered with a Star of David is draped over the lid, and at the head of the coffin, a yahrzeit candle is burning.

The Rabbi speaks sonorously, with a heavy Eastern European accent, unapologetically consulting a sheet of notes for the family names.

RABBI ISIDOR CHEMELWITZ: Hello and good morning. I am Rabbi Isidor Chemelwitz of the Bronx Home for Aged Hebrews. We are here this morning to pay respects at the passing of Sarah Irons...