UI Tackles Kushner Play
The University of Idaho Theatre Department takes on one of the most talked about - and most ambitious - plays of the 1990s beginning Tuesday.
Tony Kushner’s Pulitzer Prize-winning “Angels in America, Part One: Millennium Approaches” will run at the UI’s Hartung Theatre Tuesday through April 11.
This show, subtitled “A Gay Fantasia on National Themes,” is a sweeping epic about AIDS, politics, life and death. The characters include a young Mormon lawyer in the Justice Department, his pill-popping wife, a young gay clerical worker and Roy Cohn, the real-life right-wing political lawyer.
These characters and these ideas reflect playwright Kushner’s commitment to the largest and most difficult themes an artist can tackle.
“I think you really have to want to create theater that changes the world,” said Kushner in an interview during a visit to the UI campus last month. “Yet I think you also have to realize that what you’re doing IS theater and in a certain sense completely irrelevant and a form of entertainment, so you don’t become too self-serious.”
“Angels,” despite its heavy and often tragic themes, is vastly entertaining, with its spectacular vision of an angel descending from the sky, and its constant laughs. As Frank Rich of the New York Times wrote, “It’s a work that never loses its wicked sense of humor.”
“I think it’s deadly for theater when it becomes too, sort of, certain,” said Kushner. “The minute you really believe you’re Chekhov, you become terribly boring. It’s better to remember, and Chekhov clearly did, that you are writing a form of entertainment, and if you have that level of genius, you can accomplish what Chekhov accomplished.”
Kushner doesn’t claim to be another Chekhov, but he certainly accomplished one of the most impressive theatrical feats of the decade. He took issues that audiences are normally wary of — gay politics, socialist politics and just plain politics — and he created a play that spoke to the mainstream. Kushner once said that he is happiest when politically engaged people say, “Your play meant a lot to me.”
“Remember, though, that you’re not really going to start the revolution in the theater,” said Kushner. “It’s going to come from elsewhere, and you have to remember that even though theater can have a political effect in the world, it doesn’t replace activism. And activism is absolutely required of everybody in a democracy.”
The play is being presented with a relatively strong disclaimer: “R-rated. Contains sexually explicit content and explores a range of politically sensitive social issues inappropriate for children and may be offensive to some adults.”
That said, director David Lee-Painter of UI’s theater faculty said that this is a play that is timely and appropriate for the community.
“We live in a time when compassion toward each other is particularly relevant given the recent horrific events in Wyoming, Alabama and Texas. `Angels in America’ is a call to the moral urgency of being conscious of our differences and embracing our humanity,” said Lee-Painter.
This is actually only part one of a two-part play, the second of which is called, “Angels in America, Part Two: Perestroika.” The first part, however, stands easily on its own.
Performances are Tuesday through April 10 at 7:30 p.m., and April 11 at 2 p.m. Tickets are $8 for adults, $7 for seniors and $5 for youth and UI students. To reserve tickets, call the box office from noon to 5 p.m. weekdays at (208) 885-7986.