angels in america
part one: millennium approaches
BY TONY KUSHNER
MARCH 23 – APRIL 23
BILL’S NOTES
When Tony Kushner was
commissioned to write Angels in
America, he wanted to include the
lawyer Roy M. Cohn as a major
character, the McCarthy witch hunts,
as well as the influence of the Mormon
Church. How a work could weave
all three seemingly disparate parts
into a massive work is the genius
of the playwright. One of the first
productions of the play was presented
at the National Theatre in London, in
1992. I went to the intimate Cottesloe
venue without knowing what to
expect, although I had heard that this
was a very special play that placed at
its centre a character who has AIDS.
At the time, Larry Lillo, the artistic
director of the Vancouver Playhouse,
was stricken with the disease. Larry
was an incredible theatre artist,
enlivening the theatre scene in the
1980s. For the Arts Club, he directed
several productions, including Bent at
our Seymour Street location in 1981,
which quickly became a much-talked
about show. Larry succumbed to the
ravages of AIDS in 1993, and jolted
many of us to the seriousness of this
scourge.
Director Kim Collier, who helmed Saint Joan for us in the fall of 2014, has
assembled an outstanding cast with noted film/television actor Brian Markinson
playing the role of Cohn (Brian was last seen at the Arts Club in Glengarry
Glen Ross). He is joined by Ryan Beil (One Man, Two Guvnors) as Louis and
Gabrielle Rose (Elizabeth Rex) as Hannah. Rounding out the cast are Lois
Anderson as The Angel, Damien Atkins as Prior, Craig Erickson as Joe, Celine
Stubel as Harper, and Stephen Jackman-Torkoff as Belize. These actors also play
many other parts, bringing to life the playwright’s extraordinary vision of a world
that seems to be coming apart at the seams—something we can relate to even
today.
Bill Millerd, Artistic Managing Director
2 Bill’s Notes: Angels in America
SYNOPSIS (SPOILER ALERT!)
Act I
The play opens in late October, 1985.
Rabbi Isidor Chemelwitz stands near
a small coffin adorned with a Star of
David prayer cloth. The rabbi, from
the Bronx Home for Aged Hebrews,
provides an ad hoc eulogy for the
recently deceased Sarah Ironson,
though, he admits, he did not know
her personally. He reads off a list of
Sarah’s grandchildren, among who
is Louis Ironson, a character with
whom we will soon become acquainted. In the next scene, set the same
day, Roy M. Cohn, the powerful New
York attorney, sits in his office with
Joseph Pitt, chief clerk at the Federal
Court of Appeals, Second Circuit. Roy asks Joe, a Mormon from Utah, about
whether he likes his current job, and then, suddenly, proposes that Joe take
a new one in Washington, DC, a lucrative position at the Justice Department. Joe is interested, but tells Roy that he will have to think about it and
talk it over with his wife. After this, we see Joe’s wife, Harper, at their home
in Brooklyn. She is talking to herself, a strange soliloquy about the ozone
layer as a “kind of gift, from God, the crowning touch to the creation of the
world.” She concludes, though, that “everywhere, things are collapsing, lies
surfacing, systems of defense giving way...” Harper then directs her remarks
to an imaginary figure, a travel agent whom she refers to as Mr. Lies. Harper
tells him that she would like to travel to Antarctica, because she feels she
isn’t safe where she is now, in New York. When Joe enters the apartment, Mr.
Lies vanishes. He greets Harper as “Buddy” and gives her a kiss, then asks
whether she’d like to move to Washington.
In the following scene, Louis Ironson, who works as a word processor at
the Second Court of Appeals, and his boyfriend, Prior Walter, are having a
conversation outside the funeral home where the service for Louis’s grandmother is being held. Prior shows Louis a dark purple spot on his arm. Louis
suggests that this is merely a burst blood vessel, but Prior tells him that,
according to his doctor, it’s a Kaposi’s sarcoma lesion. Prior admits that
he didn’t tell Louis sooner because he was worried that Louis would leave
him on account of his apparent illness. Next, we see a split-scene: Joe and
Harper are at home, Louis and Rabbi Isidor Chemelwitz are at the cemetery
for Sarah’s burial. Harper tells her husband that she doesn’t want to move
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to Washington. He tries to change her mind, mentioning his low pay in New
York. Harper tells Joe about her fears—in this case, of a man with a knife
in their bedroom. Joe attributes this hallucinatory paranoia to her abuse
of prescription pills. Louis speaks to the rabbi as his grandmother’s coffin
is lowered into the earth, asking him what the Holy Writ has to say about
someone who abandons a person in a time of great personal need. The rabbi
responds that Jewish scripture is silent on this particular matter. Joe continues trying to convince Harper that the move would be a positive one for them,
that America under Reagan has “rediscovered itself” and “its sacred position
among nations” and that, in Washington, he could be a part of that. Harper
is unconvinced that things are getting better, noting disturbing phenomena
that she sees every day. Joe counters that this is because of her “emotional
problems,” but Harper denies that she has any such problems. He apologizes for his comment, and they make up, exchanging a kiss. Harper proposes “trying” a blowjob, but Joe responds squeamishly to this suggestion.
It is the first week of November in the next scene, set in the men’s
washroom at the Brooklyn Federal Court of Appeals. As Joe enters, he notices Louis there, crying over the sink. Joe introduces himself to Louis and asks why he’s upset. “Sick friend,” replies Louis. As
they chat, it comes out that Joe supports President Reagan. “Well, oh
boy. A gay Republican,” quips Louis. Joe denies that he’s gay. Louis
says that he assumed Joe was gay from the way his voice sounded.
A week later, Harper is experiencing a drug-induced hallucination, in which
she sees Prior, whom she does not otherwise know. He claims that he’s
not in her hallucination; rather, she’s in his dream. In the course of their
conversation, Prior informs Harper that Joe is a homosexual. Harper at
first responds that this is “ridiculous,” but then, upon thinking it over, she
realizes that it may well true. After Harper leaves the dream/hallucination,
Prior hears a commanding voice, ordering him to “look up.” He sees a
light coming from up above him, and the voice tells him to “prepare the
way.” Then there is silence again. That night, a split-scene: Harper and Joe
at home, Louis and Prior in bed. After pressing Joe about where he’s been
going and what he’s been doing on his frequent walks around the city, she
comes right out and asks him if he’s gay. Prior tells Louis that he has two
new lesions on his body and other serious symptoms of illness. Louis asks
Prior if he’d “hate [him] forever” if he walked out on their relationship. Prior
kisses his boyfriend on the forehead, then says that, yes, he would. Joe
now admits to Harper that he’s long struggled with being “one thing deep
within” while trying with God’s help to change, or at least behave in a way
that is “correct” and “decent.” In effect, he says, he’s become a “shell.”
Harper blurts out that she’s pregnant, but Joe accuses her of lying. Louis
implores his boyfriend to “please get better...please don’t get any sicker.”
4 Bill’s Notes: Angels in America
In the next scene, now in the third week of November, Roy is in his doctor’s
office. The doctor, Henry, tells Roy that he is showing multiple symptoms of
AIDS. Roy replies that AIDS is a disease that afflicts homosexuals, and threatens to end Henry’s career should he tell anyone that Roy is suffering from the
notorious syndrome. In Roy’s view, “homosexuals” are people without any
social or political power; he, by contrast, is a very powerful and well-connected “heterosexual” man who, incidentally, has sex with other men. His official
line, therefore, will be that he has liver cancer, not AIDS. Henry tells his patient that, any rate— and by whatever logic—Roy’s illness is “very bad news.”
Act II
The second act opens in the third week of December. Prior is on his bedroom
floor, his condition visibly worse; he calls to Louis for help, saying that he
cannot breathe. Louis notices that Prior is burning up with a high fever, and
insists on calling an ambulance. That same night, Harper and Joe speak
more about his struggle with his sexuality. He tells her that he prays to God
to “break [him] up into little pieces and start all over again.” Harper tells Joe
that he is the only person she has ever loved. He asks whether she really is
pregnant, and she replies that she is late in getting her period, but beyond
that isn’t sure. She says he should go on his own to Washington. He promises that he won’t leave her, but she responds that she, instead, will leave him.
At the hospital, Louis speaks with a nurse, Emily, while Prior sleeps after
being administered painkillers. They talk about Prior. Emily notes that this
is an odd first name, and Louis tells her that, according to his boyfriend, the
name goes back, within Prior’s family, to the Mayflower, back even to the
Norman Conquest and Bayeux Tapestry in medieval Europe. Louis decides
to leave the hospital, and asks Emily to tell Prior ‘goodbye’ for him should
he wake up. An hour late, a split-scene: Joe and Roy in an upscale Manhattan bar, Louis and an unidentified man in the Rambles in Central Park. Roy
continues to press Joe, more aggressively now, to take the position in Washington. After a bit of awkward conversation, Louis and the man begin to
have sex. The man tells Louis that his condom may have broken, but Louis
tells him to keep going, to “infect” him. Uncomfortable with this, the man
abruptly stops and leaves. Roy tells Joe that he is dying of cancer. He uses
this admission to urge Louis to “let nothing stand in [his] way.” Three days
later, Prior’s friend, a nurse known as Belize, is visiting Prior in the hospital.
Prior tells Belize that Louis has gone, but Belize suggests that he’ll soon be
back. Prior mentions the mysterious voice that has been speaking to him,
but claims that he’s not allowed to tell what the voice has said to him. After
Belize leaves the hospital room, the voice speaks again to Prior. It claims
to be a “messenger.” “Soon...I will reveal myself to you,” says the voice.
In the next scene, it is the second week of January. Joe is again meeting with
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Roy, this time joined by Martin Heller, who works in the Justice Department.
He, too, is trying to convince Joe to take the Washington job. With Joe still
hesitant to commit one way or the other, Roy confesses that the New York
State Bar Association is trying to disbar him, because he “borrowed” a large
sum of money form a client—and failed to return it. Roy is adamant that he
will die a lawyer, and he explains that having Joe in the Justice Department,
close to the Reagan administration, will ensure that this remains the case.
Joe replies that even if he does take the job, it would be illegal and unethical
for him to interfere in this matter. When Roy pressures Joe further, putting
him in a very uncomfortable position, Joe relents and says he’ll think about it.
Later in the afternoon, outside the Hall of Justice in Brooklyn, Joe spots Louis
sitting on the steps. As they speak, both loosen up and there is some discernible, mutual attraction. Louis mentions that he’s “moved out” (that is, left
Prior) and that he hasn’t been sleeping well. Joe replies that he hasn’t either.
Late that night, Joe drunkenly phones his mother, Hannah, from a payphone
near Central Park. He comes out to her, but she attributes this confession to
his inebriated state and urges him to go home, to his wife, and reminds him
that drinking is a sin.
The next morning, another split-scene: Joe and Harper at home, Prior and
Louis in the hospital room. Both Louis and Harper tell their partners that
they’re leaving them, as their respective conversations overlap. Joe begs
Harper to stay; Prior is furious and says Louis’s abandonment of him is
“criminal.” Joe admits that he doesn’t have any sexual feelings for her. When
Louis blurts out that he has to “find some way to save [him]self,” Prior
screams at him to get out of the hospital room. Mr. Lies appears to Harper. She tells him to take her “anywhere,” and they vanish together. Then,
in Salt Lake City, Hannah speaks with Sister Ella Chapter, a realtor and
Hannah’s closest friend. Hannah tells her that she’s selling her house, as
she’s moving to New York City, and asks Sister Ella to get her a good price
on the property. They furtively share a cigarette, as the second act ends.
Act III
The third act begins three days later. Back in his apartment, Prior wakes up
from a nightmare to find a man dressed in the manner of a thirteenth-century
squire. The medieval man’s name is also Prior Walter, and he is an ancestor
of the modern Prior. He tells of his own death from the Bubonic Plague. A
second ghost appears, another Prior Walter, this one a seventeenth-century
London aristocrat. They’ve come to tell the modern Prior to “prepare the way.”
The next day, another split-scene: Louis and Belize meet in a café, Prior is at
a medical clinic with Emily. Louis rants long-windedly about politics, power,
and race in America, offending Belize with his comments, particularly those
concerning race. After this argument cools down, Louis asks Belize how
6 Bill’s Notes: Angels in America
bad Prior’s sickness has become. As Belize lists off Prior’s worsening health
problems, we see Prior remove his clothes for Emily to examine his numerous lesions. Emily seemingly says something in Hebrew to Prior. When Prior
asks her about this, she denies that she speaks Hebrew at all; he must have
imagined it. He tells her that he thinks he’s going crazy, but she replies that
it’s just from the stress caused by his illness. Suddenly, there is a great beam
of light, the sound of an angelic choir, and an enormous book rises up in
front of Prior. Its pages burst into flames. Emily does not seem to see this at
all, but Prior flees in terror. Louis, meanwhile, asks Belize to tell Prior that he
still loves him.
Next, we see Harper wearing a snowsuit, walking through some cold-looking
place, white with falling snow against a beautiful blue sky. Mr. Lies is with
her. She tells him that she feels better in this place—“Antarctica”—and wants
to remain there forever. Back in New York, Hannah is dragging two cumbersome suitcases through the South Bronx. She asks a homeless woman
whether she’s in Brooklyn, and if not, how to get to that borough. The woman
responds incoherently, and eventually claims that she doesn’t know how to
get to Brooklyn since she’s never been there. But when Hannah asks how to
get to the Mormon Visitor’s Centre in Manhattan, the woman knows precisely
where it is and which subway train to take, because she goes there to watch
movies for free.
That same day, Joe meets with Roy in the latter’s brownstone to tell him that
the answer is ‘no’ regarding the Washington job. Roy is disappointed and
angry with Joe’s decision. He digresses into talking about how if it weren’t for
him Ethel Rosenberg would still be alive; Roy admits that he engaged in ex
parte communication with the judge during the Rosenbergs’ trial, an admission that shocks Joe. When Joe attributes this talk to Roy being unwell, Roy
denies being in poor health, despite earlier telling Joe that he was suffering
from cancer. After Joe leaves, the ghost of Ethel Rosenberg appears, and
remarks on Roy’s gaunt, sickly appearance. Roy struggles to breathe, and Ethel’s ghost phones 911. Nevertheless, Roy taunts, “I’m immortal. I have forced
my way into history,” to which she responds, “History is about to crack wide
open. Millennium approaches.”
Late that night, Prior lies in bed while the two ghosts of his ancestors stand
over his bed, speaking in anticipation: “tonight’s the night,” announces the
medieval Prior. The modern Prior stands up, summoned by the sound of
music. He dances to the sound of wings flapping. In a split-scene, Prior is
alone in his apartment, speaking about how he is the “scion of an ancient
line”; Louis and Joe meet in the park. As Louis begins to cry, Joe reaches up
to touch his face. They share a tender moment, and Joe, after hesitating, ac-
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cepts Louis’s invitation to come back to his place. Prior, meanwhile, listens to
the beating of the wings, coming nearer. He’s hot with a fever and frightened.
Then there is a thunderous, meteor-like sound and an explosion of blinding
light, announcing the arrival of the angel, who floats above Prior’s bed. She
greets him as “Prophet” and announces, “The Great Work begins: The Messenger has arrived,” as the play’s first part concludes.
CHARACTERS
Prior’s ex-boyfriend, a nurse and former drag queen, who continues to be a close friend and source of support to the ill Prior.
Emily
A good-natured nurse attending to Prior.
Martin Heller
A publicity agent working for the Reagan Administration.
Prior Walter
A gay man suffering from AIDS, living in New York City, initially with his boyfriend, Louis Ironson. As his illness progresses, taking its rigorous physical
toll on Prior, he is increasingly drawn to a mysterious voice that speaks only
to him.
Rabbi Isidor Chemelwitz
An elderly orthodox rabbi serving the Bronx Home for Aged Hebrews.
Louis Ironson
Prior’s boyfriend, who struggles with his love of Prior and his fear of Prior’s
illness. Louis works as a word processor at the Second Court of Appeals in
Brooklyn.
Prior 1
The ghost of a thirteenth-century English squire, a distant ancestor to the
modern Prior Walter.
Roy M. Cohn
Based on the historical Cohn, Roy is a powerful New York lawyer, well-connected in right-wing politics, yet threatened in his profession due to
his sometimes unethical conduct. Roy is dying from AIDS, but—unwilling to admit that he is suffering from what he considers a ‘disease’ afflicting homosexuals—he claims that it is liver cancer.
Henry
Roy’s longtime physician.
Prior 2
The ghost of a seventeenth-century London aristocrat, another ancestor
of the modern Prior.
Ethel Rosenberg
The ghost of the historical woman, who, along with her husband, Julius, was
executed in 1953 for being a communist spy. She haunts Roy, who was instrumental in her prosecution and sentencing.
Joseph Pitt
A chief clerk at the Federal Court of Appeals, Second Circuit and a kind of protegé to Roy. Joe is a Mormon from Utah, who lives with his wife, Harper, in
Brooklyn. He is a deeply closeted gay man, who prays to God to ‘correct’ him.
Man in the Park
An anonymous man who Louis meets for furtive sex in the Rambles area of
Central Park
Harper Pitt
Joe’s wife, who suffers from intense paranoia and frequently hallucinations,
stemming from her addiction to prescription drugs.
Woman in the South Bronx
A homeless, possibly schizophrenic woman encountered by Hannah upon her
arrival in New York City
Mr. Lies
An imaginary figure, claiming to be a travel agent, who often appears
to Harper.
Sister Ella Chapter
A Salt Lake City real estate agent, Hannah’s closest friend.
Hannah Pitt
Joe’s mother, a Mormon from Salt Lake City.
Belize
8 Bill’s Notes: Angels in America
Eskimo
A figure spotted by Harper, as she walks through “Antarctica” with Mr. Lies.
The Angel
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A mysterious messenger speaking to Prior, and ultimately announcing that he
has been chosen to be a “prophet.”
ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT
Tony Kushner is an award-winning
American playwright and screenwriter. Born in New York City in 1956, but
raised primarily in Louisiana, Kushner returned to New York to attend
to Columbia University, from which
he received a Bachelor of Arts degree
in Medieval Studies, then New York
University’s Tisch School of the Arts.
Kushner ascended to prominence with Angels in America, Part One: Millennium Approaches in 1993, followed by the play’s second part, Perestroika, in
1994. For the former, Kushner was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Drama; both
parts individually captured the Tony Award for Best Play in consecutive years.
Kushner later wrote the script for HBO’s Mike Nichols-directed adaptation of
Angels of America (2003), for which Kushner won the Emmy Award for
Outstanding Writing for a Miniseries, Movie or Dramatic Special, one of 11
Emmys bestowed on the highly acclaimed miniseries. Kushner has also
written the screenplays for two films directed by Steven Spielberg, Munich
(co-written with Eric Roth) and Lincoln, earning Academy Award nominations
for both. In 2013, Kushner was presented with the National Medal of the Arts
by President Barack Obama.
val theories put forth by epidemiologists. While there were individual cases of
what may (or may not) have been AIDS between the late 1950s and the 1970s,
the AIDS epidemic—particularly in North America—spread to devastating
effect in the 1980s, the period during which Angels in America is set. Immediately following the initial CDC publication, there were subsequent reports of
a “rare cancer” found among groups of gay men in San Francisco and New
York City. By September 21, 1981, a Kaposi’s sarcoma clinic had opened at
the University of California, San Francisco Medical Center, and by the year’s
end, there were at least 270 reported cases of AIDS (although the term ‘AIDS’
would not be used until one year later), all among gay men. 121 of those men
died before the end of 1981, prompting the opening of a community health
service called Gay Men’s Health Crisis in New York City. The first congressional hearings, led by Rep. Henry Waxman, on what was increasingly understood as a serious public health problem, took place in April 1982 at the Los
Angeles Gay and Lesbian Services Center. Yet, despite efforts by some leftwing elected officials like Waxman, the ‘Reagan Era’ was by and large marked
by relative inaction at the federal level regarding the mounting AIDS epidemic.
Ronald Reagan was inaugurated as the 40th President of the United States
in January, 1981, just as AIDS began to make a discernible impact in the US.
Reagan would not even publicly mention AIDS until 1985, when, at a press
conference, he expressed doubt about whether children infected with AIDS
should be permitted to continue in school. Across Reagan’s two four-year
terms in office, medical research on AIDS was woefully underfunded, as Reagan consistently rejected CDC proposals for necessary federal funds. Critics
of this approach have argued that this inaction significantly delayed progress
in the medical understanding of HIV/AIDS, costing many thousands of lives.
THE AIDS EPIDEMIC: CHANGING ATTITUDES AND APPROACHES
10 Bill’s Notes: Angels in America
Reagan even discouraged his Surgeon General, C. Everett Koop,
from discussing AIDS,
although Koop defied
Reagan on this matter.
In 1986, he produced
a detailed report on
AIDS, emphasizing the
need to educate the
public on the virus and
the ways it could be
spread; two years later,
in 1988—near the end
of Reagan’s time in of-
damien atkins. photo by david cooper
On June 5, 1981, the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published a report concerning five young, otherwise healthy
gay men in Los Angeles, suddenly suffering from an infection of the lungs,
together with other infections, a strong indication that their immune systems were not functioning properly. This report is considered to be the first
official description of what would come to be known as the Acquired Immune
Deficiency Syndrome, or AIDS. Before this point, the history of AIDS and its
precursor infection, HIV (the Human Immunodeficiency Virus), is somewhat
shadowy and ambiguous. It is now generally accepted that AIDS originated
in the area around Kinshasa, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and that
at some point it spread between chimpanzees and gorillas to human beings.
This cross-species transmission may have occurred due to the human consumption of “bushmeat,” or when primate hunters were cut in the process of
killing their prey, but this theory is not universally accepted, nor are other, ri-
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fice—Koop had an informative pamphlet mailed out to every American household, providing useful general information on AIDS, as well as attempting to
dispel prevalent myths and falsehoods. By 1983, the CDC had identified all
possible routes of AIDS transmission—including by means of heterosexual
intercourse—and Koop saw it as imperative to impart this vital knowledge to
the public, even if Reagan did not. By the end of Reagan’s presidency, nearly
116,000 people had been diagnosed with AIDS, and more than 70,000 had
died of the virus.
Although Reagan knew, and occasionally (during his second term) spoke
about how AIDS could impact hemophiliacs and others receiving blood transfusions, it was, in his view, principally a concern within the gay community.
This was not a community that commanded a great deal of his attention or
sympathy. No legislation increasing LGBTQ rights passed during his presidency, and Reagan himself once remarked that, “[the gay community] isn’t
just asking for civil rights; it’s asking for recognition and acceptance of an alternative lifestyle which I do not believe society can condone, nor can I.” This
comment, delivered by the nation’s top political leader, can help to explain
the culture within which the deeply closeted characters of Joe Pitt and the
fictionalized Roy Cohn in Angels in America sought to conceal their homosexuality. As Cohn argues to his doctor, AIDS was a homosexual’s disease, and
homosexuals were powerless people within American society; as a well-connected power-broker, particularly one closely affiliated with the Reaganite
right, he could not afford to be seen in such a stigmatized light.
In the media, AIDS was often referred to as the “gay plague” and Kaposi’s
sarcoma—the cause of the lesions spreading over Prior Walter’s body in
Angels—was sometimes termed “gay cancer.” The deaths of several prominent gay male celebrities from AIDS compounded this social stigma. The
well-known French philosopher Michel Foucault, who was openly gay, and the
one-time Hollywood star Rock Hudson, who was posthumously revealed to
be gay, died from AIDS-related illnesses in 1984 and 1985, respectively. Freddie Mercury, the gay lead singer of the pop group Queens, announced to the
public that he had AIDS on November 24, 1991, then died from the virus just
one day later.
Yet, by this point in the early 1990s, views on HIV/AIDS may have been shifting
somewhat, albeit slowly. This was in part due to professional basketball player Earvin “Magic” Johnson’s admission, also in November 1991, that he was
HIV-positive. Johnson subsequently created the Magic Johnson Foundation, a
group aimed at combatting HIV/AIDS and educating the public about it. In
1992, Johnson took part in the National Commission on AIDS, a committee
overseen by the US Congress and members of the George H.W. Bush admin-
12 Bill’s Notes: Angels in America
istration. To his credit, Bush signed into effect the Ryan White Comprehensive
AIDS Resources Emergency Act (named for an 18-year-old man who had died
of AIDS), a measure which sought to make healthcare resources more easily
available for low-income people with HIV/AIDS. Yet, Bush denied full, adequate
funding to this program after its passage, and also failed to follow through
on the recommendations offered by the National Commission on AIDS.
It was not until the presidency of Bill Clinton, beginning in 1993, that full
funding was granted to Ryan White Care Act services. Clinton also approved
major increases in funding for AIDS research. Improvements in scientific
knowledge about HIV/AIDS and their treatment can at least partly be credited to the more progressive political climate of the 1990s. Still, AIDS remained a global health emergency into the twenty-first century, particularly
in Africa and other parts of the developing world where significant medical
advances in the treatment of HIV have yet to fully take hold. In 1999, the
World Health Organization estimated that 33 million people were then living with HIV and that 14 million had already died from AIDS. On the continent of Africa, AIDS had emerged as the number-one cause of death.
Efforts at combatting AIDS in the new millennium have, therefore, focused
on such regions, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. In 2007, it was reported
that 5.7 million South Africans had HIV/AIDS, approximately 12 percent of
that country’s population. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, launched
in 2000, has directed a large share of its $44 billion-dollar endowment toward
the fight against AIDS in Africa. Additionally, government programs like the
US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), instituted in 2003
under George W. Bush, have improved these dire conditions to some extent.
However, critics of the second Bush have argued that while PEPFAR proved
helpful toward curbing AIDS’ lethal spread in the developing world, it did
nothing to combat the epidemic at a domestic level. They note too that Bush’s
religiously motivated preference for abstinence-only sexual education programs
proved counterproductive to efforts at preventing AIDS’ spread in the US.
In light of these shortcomings, President Barack Obama oversaw the creation of the first National HIV/AIDS Strategy, an ambitious five-year plan
focused on greatly reducing the number of new infections in the US while
at the same time improving and increasing the accessibility of care for
people living with HIV/AIDS. In particular, medical researchers have increasingly emphasized the need for immediate antiretroviral therapy for
those diagnosed with HIV. Through such treatment, the life-expectancy and
quality-of-life for HIV-positive individuals have improved significantly since
the early days of the AIDS epidemic in the early 1980s. At the same time,
new HIV diagnoses in the US dropped by 19% between 2005 and 2014.
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In June 2016, UN member states collectively pledged to end the AIDS epidemic by 2030. However, this UN session was itself marked by controversy, as some 50 nations among those involved blocked members of the
LGBTQ community from speaking before the assembly, and the resolution
drafted from this session ultimately contained relatively little mention of
gay people as a group disproportionately impacted by AIDS. While the
three decades since Angels’ 1985 setting have seen real strides forward at
both the medical and social levels, much work, clearly, remains to done
with regard to HIV/AIDS and the homophobic stigmas connected to it.
ROY M. COHN: HIS LIFE AND TIMES
In an introductory note to his original script for Angels in America, Tony Kushner
wrote, “Roy M. Cohn, the character, is based on the late Roy M. Cohn who was
all too real; for the most part the acts attributed to the character Roy...are to be
found in the historical record. But this Roy is a dramatic fiction; his words are
my invention, and liberties have been taken.” Indeed, it might further be said
that Roy M. Cohn was so utterly singular a person that no dramatist could have
made him up. This essay will provide a brief sketch of Cohn’s fascinating life
and career.
Cohn was born in the Bronx, New York in 1927. His father, Albert C. Cohn, was a
New York State Supreme Court Judge who wielded influence within Democratic
Party political circles. After completing his undergraduate studies at Columbia
College, Roy Cohn studied law at Columbia University, graduating when he
was just 20 years old. At 21 (the minimum age), Cohn was admitted to the bar.
Although Cohn, like his father, was a registered Democrat, he primarily supported Republicans, and in this early, heady period of the Cold War, he directed his
efforts toward the prosecution of alleged communists and communist sympathizers in the US. In some of his earliest cases as Assistant US Attorney, Cohn
argued for the conviction of suspects accused of aiding the Soviet Union.
The most famous case in which Cohn was involved was the trial of Julius Rosenberg and his wife Ethel. The Rosenbergs stood accused of supplying information concerning the atomic bomb to the USSR. As an assistant to Irving Saypol,
the primary prosecutor for this case, Cohn’s key contribution was his intensive
examination of David Greenglass, Ethel’s brother. Greenglass’s testimony
regarding Ethel’s knowledge of and participation in her husband’s espionage
activities proved critical in securing her conviction, resulting in her execution
alongside Julius in 1953. Greenglass would later claim that his testimony was
false, and that he had fabricated information about Ethel in order to protect
himself and his own wife. He also alleged that Cohn had personally encouraged
him to make these false claims. For his part, Cohn later boasted that he had
14 Bill’s Notes: Angels in America
urged Judge Irving Kaufman to impose the death penalty on both Rosenbergs—
strongly suggesting that the unethical ex parte conversation did in fact occur.
Today, many historians of the Cold War, as well as the Rosenbergs’ children,
continue to insist that Ethel in particular was wrongfully convicted and sentenced—that she was a martyr of the era’s anti-communist hysteria and a victim
of improper legal conduct.
Perhaps no single figure is as synonymous with the paranoid political mood of
this period as Sen. Joseph McCarthy, the anti-communist crusader who relentlessly sought the identification and prosecution of alleged communists in the
US government and the Hollywood entertainment industry. Upon the recommendation of FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover—another notorious figure closely
associated with intense paranoia and unscrupulous practices—Cohn went to
work for McCarthy as chief counsel on the Senate Permanent Subcommittee
on Investigations. In the years that followed, Cohn would work closely with
McCarthy, including in battling the so-called “Lavender Scare,” the perception
that there were numerous homosexuals working as Soviet spies within the US
government. McCarthy’s logic suggested that closeted homosexuals would be
particularly adept, and therefore especially dangerous, as spies. Upon McCarthy’s urging, President Dwight Eisenhower signed legislation banning gay
people from taking positions in the federal government. Cohn’s collaboration
in this campaign, which led to many accused homosexuals losing their jobs in
government, is sadly ironic, given that Cohn himself was a closeted gay man.
During this time, Cohn may have been in a sexual relationship with G. David
Schine, who had been hired to McCarthy’s staff as chief consultant. This is the
view of some historians and biographers of Cohn; others suggest that this particular relationship was platonic and perhaps unrequited—but few, if any, deny
that Cohn was an active homosexual during this period, when he and McCarthy
specifically targeted gay people employed in government.
In the years following Cohn’s work for McCarthy, he returned to New York,
where he had a long, though controversial, career as an attorney, representing some of the city’s major power brokers, including Mafia dons, the Roman
Catholic Archdiocese of New York, and the businessman and future Republican
president Donald Trump. Cohn also enjoyed significant political relationships
beyond New York City, with close connections to the administrations of Richard
Nixon and Ronald Reagan. These connections, however, did not prevent him
from being charged with legal misconduct, as was the case on three separate
occasions in the 1970s and 1980s. Before Cohn ultimately lost his law license,
just one month before his death—a prospect that Angels’ fictionalized Cohn is
fighting desperately to prevent—he was accused of perjury and witness
tampering.
artsclub.com 15
In 1984, Cohn was diagnosed with AIDS. As in Kushner’s play, the real-life Cohn
publicly insisted that it was liver cancer, rather than an illness widely associated
with homosexuals and intravenous drug users. Cohn did participate in some
of the earliest medical trials of the anti-HIV drug AZT, but this therapy was not
enough to prolong his life beyond August 2, 1986. On that day, Cohn died in
Bethesda, Maryland, where he was receiving the AZT treatments at the National
Institutes of Health’s main campus.
This show invites audiences to laugh, think, and feel while reflecting on changing relationships, generational gaps, and the multiplicity of parenting approaches. The play is an opportunity to connect with the theatrical talents of five local
women with unique experiences. Mom’s the Word 3 takes a refreshingly honest
look at how families transform and adapt.
NOTES
Thirty years since his death, Cohn’s legacy remains contested. What is clear
enough is that Cohn’s public and private lives were thoroughly intertwined with
the political and social currents of the times in which he lived, from the Cold
War hunt for stateside communists to the Reaganite conservative revolution of
the 1980s to, finally, the American AIDS epidemic.
SPOTLIGHT ON: MOM’S THE WORD 3: NEST ½ EMPTY
The creators of the international hits
Mom’s the Word and Mom’s the Word 2:
Unhinged join forces again for Mom’s
the Word 3: Nest ½ Empty, a new show
that tackles new territory, delving into
how motherhood evolves as children
become complex and hilarious adults.
Five women weave together their true
personal stories, challenging, questioning, and responding to the concept of
“empty nest syndrome.”
Mom’s the Word 3 builds on ideas
explored in the first two plays, but also
stands alone as a satisfying piece of
theatre. It is the premiere production
april 6 – may 6
of a new work by five celebrated local
granville island stage
artists: Alison Kelly (playwright of The
Day Before Christmas), Deborah Williams (Clybourne Park, The Importance of
Being Earnest), Barbara Pollard (Billy Elliot), Jill Daum (playwright of Forget
About Tomorrow in our 2017/2018 season) and Robin Nichol. Through scenes,
monologues, poetic reflections and anecdotes, these women take on a range
of relatable—and often hysterical—obstacles. They confront divorce, skydiving,
unconventional marriage counseling, a parenting game show, mental health
challenges, and a gorgeous Italian swimming instructor, ultimately discovering
the rewards, as well as the difficulties, of parenting adults.
16 Bill’s Notes: Angels in America
artsclub.com 17
angels in America
part one: millennium approaches
MARCH 23 – APRIL 23
604.687.1644
ARTSCLUB.COM
18 Bill’s Notes: Angels in America