By William Wolf

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There is an uplifting moment in the epilogue at the end of Part 2 of the revival of “Angels in America” that is both a chilling reminder of all who died of AIDS in the epidemic and a ray of hope for the future. Taking us back in time and memory, Andrew Garfield, so brilliant in his role as AIDS-stricken Prior Walter, speaks directly to the audience in a capstone to all that has gone before in Tony Kushner’s remarkable, award-winning 1993 play, subtitled “A Gay Fantasia on National Themes,” this time around in a British National Theatre production. (See Search for a review of a previous revival by the Signature Theatre Company.)

Those of us who remember so many individuals who perished from AIDS at a time when activists had to battle for recognition of the epidemic, and in the years afterward, must inevitably be deeply moved by the fresh look at those turbulent years through the eyes of Kushner and the impressive performances under the equally impressive and inventive direction by Marianne Elliott.

Kushner’s sprawling work is a stupendous blend of reality and fantasy, with political perspective and the interaction of characters portrayed in 1985 and 1986, followed by the 1990 epilogue. There is a total of some seven and a half hours of theater, with the first half, titled “Millennium Approaches” and the second half, “Perestroika.” One can see both parts in various ticket combinations. The result is totally unique, given Kushner’s wide-ranging imagination, daring and insight. Yes, there are sections that could be trimmed, but the totality is what hits an audience powerfully. Amazingly, while dealing with situations of the utmost seriousness, Kushner injects massive humor along the way, and the combination works splendidly, making the work often very funny as well as penetrating and upsetting.

The play offers a bonanza for actors, and this cast comes through admirably. Garfield gives a great, memorable performance as Prior, flamboyantly gay, suffering AIDS intensely, and filled with burning anger at the abandonment by his lover, Louis, played with impassioned, broadly expressed conflict by superb James McArdle. Louis cannot cope with illness and impending death, and although wracked with guilt, he walks away from the stricken, hospitalized Prior.

Much of the drama deals with coming to terms with being gay, a theater contribution to the evolution of gay rights and openness. The problem is epitomized by Lee Pace as Joseph, a judicial clerk in a painful marriage to Harper (Denise Gough). He becomes attracted to Louis despite his reluctance to face the truth about himself in violation of his being raised a Mormon. Gough gives an astonishingly vivid performance as Harper, who is a psychological mess, and needs to find herself.

But the great scene-stealer is Nathan Lane’s dynamic performance as lawyer Roy Cohn, who refuses to recognize that he is dying of AIDS and insists it is liver cancer. The villainous Cohn, who is disbarred for unethical behavior, becomes a larger-than-life character in the play, and we watch him doomed and hospitalized, but still fighting against recognition that he is gay.

Kushner’s imagination brings the ghost of Ethel Rosenberg into Cohn’s room, a reminder of how he helped prosecute her for conspiracy to commit espionage, resulting in her execution over which he gloats. Now it is her turn to haunt him, to the point of saying Kaddish, the Jewish prayer for the dead, as he dies in misery. (Ethel’s accuser, her brother David Greenglass, admitted on television that he lied about his sister to save himself and his wife, thus indicating that Ethel was innocent and wrongly convicted and killed.)

Ethel is played with stoic calm by Susan Brown, who deserves special praise for the multiple roles she assumes. In addition to Ethel Rosenberg, we also see her as a rabbi, as a Russian making a speech about change in the then Soviet Union, as the mother of Harper and as an angel.

Another standout is Nathan Stewart-Jarrett as the sharp-tongued, larger-than-life hospital nurse administering to both Cohn and Prior. Kushner has given him an array of sure-fire laugh lines, and Stewart-Jarrett makes the most of them, his gay characterization and his attitude toward life and his patients.

One of the playwright’s most lavish concoctions is the descent of a wide-winged angel, played to the hilt by Amanda Lawrence, with all of the accompanying costume and effects trappings. She confronts and battles with Prior, who sees her as the angel of death. Some of the long dialogue between them in “Perestroika” could be cut, but the imagery brought to the play by The Angel is surely memorable.

The scenic design is by Ian MacNeil, who excels in helping to facilitate the action, real and imaginary, sometimes in the form of cubicles, sometimes with a room rising from below the stage, at one time with a dropped ladder that Prior ascends and always with a huge overhang that can light up when highlighted. There are many other key contributions—costume design by Nicky Gillibrand, lighting design by Paul Constable, music by Adrian Sutton, sound design by Ian Dickinson and more.

This is a rare opportunity to see one of the most important plays of modern times, one difficult to stage and unlikely to be re-staged any time soon. It is a revival to be cherished, and missing it would certainly leave a gap in one’s theatergoing. At the Neil Simon Theatre, 250 West 52nd Street. Phone: 877-250-2929. Reviewed March 31, 2018.

  

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