By Delia Paunescu and Lindsay Christ
“Angels in America” has long been a controversial play. In its dealing with religion, homosexuality, substance abuse and a deadly disease, the work is powerful enough to open eyes and minds to some very serious issues.
Created in 1991 by Tony Kushner, the first part of the play, “Millennium Approaches,” now comes to the University. It is being put on by the Spectrum Players as their final show of the season.
“It’s a special show,” says Chris D’Amato, a junior drama major, of the play. D’Amato is the director of this production. “I love the show and think it’s a great piece for actors. That and it can be done for cheap,” he adds.
But Spectrum only decided to fund a production of the play’s first part. “The first half works better as a stand-alone,” D’Amato says of the splitting decision. “Besides, the entire show is really tough to do because it’s so long and we would need a much larger budget.”
Though the play’s second half, “Perestroika,” will not be performed, D’Amato mentions that it may appear next semester. “There are talks of doing a staged reading with the same cast sometime in the fall. Perhaps we’ll do some sort of discussion or fundraiser to go with it. But it would be nice for people to see the second half.”
As the play opens, the audience is quickly introduced to Louis Ironson and Prior Walter, a gay couple who is dealing with Prior’s recent AIDS diagnosis. Joe Pitt, a Mormon law clerk who is secretly gay, deals with his wife Harper’s Valium addiction while deciding whether or not to take a job from Roy Cohn, a famous and very tough legal brain who in turn, deals with his own demons.
“It’s the most important play of the last 50 years,” says Keith Pinault, a freshman drama major, who plays Joe, the confused Mormon lawyer.
Chelsea Frati, also a freshman drama major, plays Pinault’s onstage wife, Harper. “It’s probably the most emotionally effective show I’ve ever been in,” she says. “It has such a strong message.”
But despite what seems like very heavy onstage discussion, “Millennium Approaches” is not without its comedic elements. “We tackled it professionally, but we also had fun,” Casey Killoran, a junior drama major and the angel in the play, explains. “If you’re sitting for three hours you don’t want to just watch three hours of crying. There’s a laugh in every scene.”
D’Amato hopes a performance will serve dual purposes. “It’s a very daring show and I hope that it encourages our student group [Spectrum] to put on more edgy stuff.”
He insists that, “Everybody can get something out of this show. It’s not about AIDS, it’s about everything and everybody.”
The Spectrum Players’ production of “Angels in America Part I: Millennium Approaches” will run Thursday through Sunday at the Spiegel Theater. Admission will be sold at the door. Tickets are $5 with a Hofstra ID and $8 otherwise.