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Epic play squeezes into SNAP!'s limited space
by Steve Eskew - Omaha Reader
Successfully fusing such eclectic subject matter as drugs, sex, political ethics and religious awakenings takes considerable talent — especially when mixing such diverse theatrical styles as stark realism and quasi-surrealism. Tony Kushner’s Angels in America explores the possibilities in both art and the human experience, while consistently employing a particularly wicked wit. SNAP! Productions is currently offering Part 1 of Kushner’s epic; the company will present Part 2 in March.
An all-American drama with inspiring universal themes, the play opens with a rabbi delivering a eulogy for an immigrant who had been exceptionally devoted to her heritage, personifying the American dream. Extolling the woman as “not just a person but a whole kind of person,” the rabbi praises her sense of honor, demonstrated by her vehement belief in traditional ethics.
Shifting to the tainted American political landscape of the mid-1980s, Kushner focuses on America’s horrific experience during the dawn of the AIDS pandemic and its intertwinement with Reaganomics.
The play’s sprawling tapestry contrasts two New York couples, one gay, the other nominally and hypocritically heterosexual. The gay couple consists of a conflicted Jewish clerical worker named Louis (Stephen Michael Shelton) who wrestles with the moral issue of abandoning his AIDS-stricken partner, Prior (Matt Allen).
The female half of the other couple is Harper (Jennifer Gilg), an unbalanced Mormon homemaker who pops pills, hallucinates and is plagued by a recurring nightmare that a man is trying to kill her. She is convinced the mystery man is her ambitious, enigmatic husband Joe (Brian Zealand). Lately, he’s been trying to elevate his career by associating with Roy Cohn (Michal Simpson), an unscrupulous broker who also has AIDS. Justice-conscience Joe seems the polar opposite of vile, cynical Cohn, although they share one commonality: both are closet homosexuals.
One would be hard pressed to pick this play’s best actor. Gilg provides just the right touch of nuttiness. Simpson makes the evil Cohn so fully human that one wonders what made him such a schmuck. Possessing a natural stage presence, Shelton gives full depth to Louis, a man in constant conflict with his choices. Allen’s bravura performance imparts the Aristotelian sentiments of pity and fear, ultimately giving his character nobility.
Zealand, practically a stage neophyte, performs like an old pro. With convincing ease, he balances conflicts of ethics, success, faith and sexual ambiguity.
Supporting actors almost steal the show. Kirstin Kulver is outstanding in multiple roles, especially as a homeless psychotic. The uninhibited Roderick Leon Cotton is so good one forgets he’s acting, and Therese Rennels again proves she was born to be onstage.
This production’s only handicap is that it is too big for the intimate Shelterbelt stage. Director Thomas Lowe’s stunning visual compositions, powerful pacing and impeccable scene-building make him a promising new director. Here, however, he fails to create sufficient movement patterns in his blocking design, resulting in a lack of visual rhythm. Since actors’ memorization depends on word-movement association, it is impressive that players rarely flubbed a line on preview night.
Nevertheless, Lowe squeezes Kushner’s message into a very tight space and succeeds in showing the potential of beauty and truth to triumph over humankind’s despicable deceptions.
Published Saturday | November 17, 2007
Review: 'Angels' has many powerful moments
BY BOB FISCHBACH
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER
Big play. Big performances. Small space.
Scaling down Tony Kushner's Pulitzer- and Tony-winning 1993 epic "Angels in America: Millennium Approaches" to fit the 50-seat SNAP/Shelterbelt Theatre could prove tricky.
SNAP Productions mostly succeeds in its effort, thanks to a strong and talented cast, innovation in Liz Kendall's spare scenic design and smooth tech crews that keep director Thomas Lowe's three-hour show moving.
What makes the evening soar, though, is Kushner's words. His script reflects the time in which it is set — the mid-1980s Reagan era when the AIDS epidemic fed cultural fears of uncertainty. But "Angels" is timeless in the questions it raises about love, redemption, justice and belief. Plot lines and underlying themes brilliantly interlock.
Among memorable moments in an evening of plenty:
• Stephen Michael Shelton as Louis, weeping in a restroom after learning his partner, Prior (Matt Allen), has AIDS — then hitting on Joe (Brian Zealand), the closeted Mormon lawyer who interrupts him.
• Roderick Cotton as fey nurse Belize, confronting his friend Louis in a hilariously barbed exchange after Louis abandons a seriously ill Prior.
• Jennifer Gilg, as Joe's Valium-addicted wife, Harper, who finds her hallucination has merged with Prior's campy dream. Each becomes able to see and say the truth about the other, and it's simultaneously funny and painful. Gilg also shines in a drug-induced visit to Antarctica, where Cotton serves as amiable tour guide.
• Michal Simpson as ruthless power broker Roy Cohn, pushing Joe to unethically influence his fight against disbarment. "Ya wanna be nice, or ya wanna be effective?" he snarls with a blend of impatience and derision.
• Kirstin Kluver as a psychotic street person, giving Joe's seriously lost mother, Hannah (Therese Rennels), directions between slurps of soup and incoherent ravings. Kluver also is good as a savvy nurse, handling a panicked Prior with easy grace.
• Rennels as an old rabbi, eulogizing a woman he didn't know, explaining how the melting pot never really melted. And Rennels as Cohn's doctor, whose AIDS diagnosis is met with another kind of cold reality.
The small stage is divided into three playing areas, with platforms at left and right. Each area has framed, dark backing, and each inevitably feels cramped at times. It's mildly distracting when you see actors having to turn sideways to cross an area or to exit between backdrops.
A climactic play-ending entrance will probably underwhelm you if you compare it with other versions you might have seen.
Problems with oversize performances also cropped up occasionally. When the front row is in your lap, and the back of the house is just four rows away, an essential sense of realism can easily be lost. And contorted wrists can feel like overkill in conveying a flamboyant moment.
But mostly, Lowe has shaped scenes of powerful, often moving, drama from his players, each of whom has reason to be proud. Rennels' versatility, Zealand's grounded sincerity and Cotton's snappy repartee left particularly strong impressions.
Double duty for ‘Angels in America’ cast
One group of actors makes a five-month time commitment to appear in local productions of two epic Broadway plays.
By Bob Fischbach
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER
Two directors, two plays, nearly seven hours of script and nearly five months of rehearsals and performances. But just one cast.
SNAP Productions’ decision tostage Tony Kushner’s “Angelsin America:Millennium Approaches” this month, then the sequel, “Angels in America: Perestroika” in March, meant an unusual level of commitment for actors who showed up at auditions in mid-September. SNAP wanted the same cast for both shows.
“That’s the way it’s typically done,” said M. Michele Phillips, who will direct “Perestroika.” The two shows played simultaneously on Broadway for a time, starting in November 1993.
“We thought the actors and audiences would like it,” said Tom Lowe, who is directing “Millennium Approaches.” The Tony- and Pulitzer-winning play, set in the early years of the AIDS epidemic, opens Friday.
While audience reaction remains to be seen, Lowe was right about the actors. More than 30 tried out for the plays’ eight parts. Each actor plays multiple roles, which Phillips said isa fun challenge for any actor.
“For a project like ‘Angels in America,’ the five-month commitment is beside the issue,” said Brian Zeeland, 20, cast as closeted gay Mormon husband Joe Pitt.“Ilove the play.”
Zeeland, who works at Hyatt Hotels, said Sunday matinees fall on his day off. Evenings, he heads straight from work to rehearsal or performance.
“It’s almost like job security,” said Stephen Michael Shelton, who plays Jewish gay partner Louis. “At least I know I’ve got another show coming up. And I love the journey the entire thing takes.”
Shelton likened the experience to doing a television series: “ You work for a couple months, go away on hiatus (from mid-December to late January), then you’re all excited to see each other and work together again.”
Having the same actors will make it more fun for audiences to follow what happens to each character, Shelton said, suggesting that many will want to attend both shows.
Phillips and Lowe are serving as each other’s assistant directors, and they have found that collaboration on casting and on their approach to the two plays has been blissfully conflict- free.
“Tom’s an academic expert on this show,so he hada clear vision of how he wanted to proceed,” Phillips said.
Lowe’s performance as Louis in the 2002 University of Nebraska at Omaha production of “Millennium Approaches” was part of his master’s thesis.
“Kushner is very influenced by (playwright Bertolt) Brecht,” Lowe said, particularly the concept of dialectic. “ Both authors saw the contradictions within people. For example, if love is true for the character, then hate is equally true.”
The show presents challenging themes, touching on the politics of both McCarthyism and the
Reagan era, plus religion, health care, sexuality, disintegrating relationships and more.
“It’s this epic story, but it comes down to the relationships,” Lowe said. “These characters are
so universal, anyone can relate to it.”
“I don’t know how you could not love this play,” Phillips said. “The writing is astounding.
You get more insight every time you see it, and it never loses its mystique. To me, it’s timeless.” |
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