dlowan wrote:Wow! Just finished watching episode 2 - wish I hadn't missed episode one, dammit.
So what did you make of it, Deb? I found tonight's episode a bit harder to grasp & had to concentrate hard, due to a few distractions. Right now I'm digesting.
Burp.....
rich, but loved it....
dlowan wrote:Meryl Streep as Ethel Rosenberg!
Yes, wasn't she good! And very tolerant toward Cohn, considering he'd campaigned so hard for her death.
I was so impressed with Jeffrey Wright, who played Belize, the the gay black nurse. Great performance.
You'll be amazed at the other character(s) Streep and Wright portray along the way.
PDiddie
Was she the bearded rabbi conducting the funeral service in the first episode?
Kushner, Tony
Angels in America
Genre Play (307 pp.)
Keywords AIDS, Caregivers, Death and Dying, Disability, Doctor-Patient Relationship, Gay/Lesbian/Bisexual Issues, Humor and Illness/Disability, Infectious Disease, Mental Illness, Religion, Society,
Summary Angels in America is really two full-length plays. Part I: Millennium Approaches won the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. This play explores "the state of the nation"--the sexual, racial, religious, political and social issues confronting the country during the Reagan years, as the AIDS epidemic spreads.
Two of the main characters have AIDS. One, Prior, is a sane, likeable man who wonders if he is crazy as he is visited by ghosts of his ancestors, and selected by angels to be a prophet (but the audience sees the ghosts and angels too). The other main character, Roy Cohn, based on the real political figure, is a hateful powerbroker who refuses the diagnosis of AIDS because only powerless people get that sickness.
A rabbi opens the play, saying that in the American "melting pot" nothing melts; three Mormons try to reconcile their faith with the facts of their lives. Belize, an African-American gay nurse, is the most compassionate and decent person in the play, along with Hannah, the Mormon mother who comes to New York to try to untangle the mess of her son and daughter-in-law's marriage. In contrast to their commitment, Prior's lover, Louis, abandons him in cowardly fear of illness. The play portrays a wide range of reactions to illness, both by the patients and by those around them. Included is the realization that much of the nation's reaction is political and prejudiced.
The second play, Part II: Perestroika (winner of a Tony Award), continues the story, with the angel explaining to Prior that God has abandoned his creation, and that Prior has been chosen to somehow stop progress and return the world to the "good old days." Prior tells the angel he is not a prophet; he's a lonely, sick man. "I'm tired to death of being tortured by some mixed-up, irresponsible angel. . . Leave me alone."
Ironically, Belize is Roy Cohn's nurse, as Cohn--even as he is dying in his hospital bed--tries to manipulate the system to get medication and special treatment, and to trick the ghost of Ethel Rosenberg into singing him a lullaby. Meanwhile, the Mormon mother, Hannah, manages to help save the sanity and integrity of her daughter-in-law, Harper; and she also is a good caregiver for Prior.
At the end of the play, we see Prior, Louis, Belize, and Hannah sitting on the rim of the fountain in Central Park with the statue of the Bethesda angel. They say that when the Millennium came, everyone who was "suffering, in the body or the spirit, [and] walked through the waters of the fountain of Bethesda, would be healed, washed clean of pain."
These four characters represent Jews and Christians and agnostics; homosexuals and heterosexuals; blacks and whites; men and women; caregivers and patients; two generations--the American mix, in this case, caring about each other. Somehow, although the real angels in this play seem inept and reactionary, these folks together at the Bethesda angel fountain seem competent contributors to the future.
Commentary These plays compose an epic drama that has deservedly earned awards for its portrayal of contemporary America--its mixture of brutal reality and miraculous fantasy, its tragedy and comedy, its meannesses and compassions. Angels and real historical figures, fictional characters and ghosts, all appear on stage together and challenge our conventional concepts of what is real.
The scene at the end of the first play, when the angel comes crashing through the ceiling into Prior's sickroom, is one of the most dazzling dramatic spectacles ever staged. Every situation is seen from at least two different, and often conflicting perspectives. Characters in the play struggle to find meaning in a world apparently abandoned by God. Some deny, reject, and fail, but the strong ones break free (as does Harper), or find their meaning in compassion and commitment to others (Hannah and Belize).
Publisher Theatre Communications Group (New York)
Edition 1993
Annotated by Donley, Carol
Date of Entry 12/30/96
Last Modified 7/3/98
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Getting chills just thinking about it all again.
I saw Angels onstage years ago, but don't have HBO, so I haven't seen the miniseries yet.
I just looked it up, and the DVD is scheduled for release on September 7, 2004. I'm putting in on my calendar...
msolga wrote:
"Ah, a Melbournian! (For some reason I thought you were a Melbournian living in Essex!)"
NO, thank Geiger - I'm a Pom!
"Did you peak at any of last night's episode while taping?"
No, I didn't peek at any of it. Even when I rewound the tape to the end of the episode (I can't watch/rewind anymore on my VCR, it cuts out) I caught it during the end credits. I was watching Law & Order and Without A Trace while it was on.
"You're going to watch it all in one go, like littlek? That is going to be a very heavy session!"
Well, if it does get a little heavy for me, I can stop it for the time being anywhere and return to it later. I also have the option of watching as much as I want in one sitting AND not have to wait another 22 hours before I can see more. (Was it one hour per week in US?)
PDiddie wrote:
"Band of Brothers is probably the finest miniseries I have ever watched. Sopranos, Six Feet Under, Carnivale, Deadwood, the recently ended Sex in the City,...the list just goes on and on."
From those, only Carnivale and Deadwood
haven't been shown on
FREE TO AIR TV here.
Maybe those two just haven't been bought/scheduled at all yet. I'm amazed sometimes when I find out a program that's on one of the network stations here, people in Amer have to pay to see. The 10 network seems to have the majority of 'cable' shows. I think Band of Brothers might have been on Channel 9. I didn't watch it so can't remember. Larry Sanders Show and Dream On were both shown on Ch10. I guess there are current programs on free to air here that I STILL don't realise are cable shows there.
A note to people in England - Australia doesn't have TV licences anymore!
They did when I first came here (mid 60s) but scrapped them years ago. So 'regular' TV (and radio) really is 'FREE to air'.
Sekeda
I think I have this right, now ... You're a Pom living in Melbourne!
What a marathon! My friend, C, & I sat through the final 2 hours last night, despite the frustration of constant interference to the reception. (What timing!
)
I was expecting the worst: Most likely Prior would die a terrible death alone, having been abandoned by Louis, Harper would become even more distanced from reality & maybe become insane ..
But what a pleasant surprise! (& relief!): Despite God having given up on the human race, good triumphed over evil. Optimism over despair. And the evil characters, even the seemingly naive but destructive young Mormon lawyer, finally had to face up to the damage they had done.
So I just loved the ending. Even in the absence of God in all this harshness & suffering, the characters with compassion survived, supported each other & found peace. A little community of hope.
My favourite scenes in the last episode:
Ethel Rosenberg's final victory over Cohn, celebrated with gentle humour.
Hannah's decision to stay & help Prior, & as a result, sharing his vision of the angel with him.
Louis reading the Kaddish over Cohn's dead body, with Ethel's assistance.
The peaceful, happy look on Harper's face as she flies away from her shocking, destructive marriage.
Prior's decision to go back to the world, deciding that as imperfect it is, that it's worth persevering.
Every scene with Belize in it .... He was rather like an ironic, human angel in the midst of all the suffering. I loved his compassion, wisdom & humour.
What more can I say? Just excellent.
msolga wrote:littlek wrote:I knew very little about it when it was fist out. My brother had some tapes of the series this past winter. I watched one tape that had, I think, the last 2 installments on it. I loved it. I was shocked that I'd never seen it before then. I want to rent the whole thing and watch it over a weekend.
That is going to be one intense weekend, littlek!
definitely.
And, yeah Meryl Streep was amazing. As was Ema Thompson. Hell, the whole cast was amazing.
Absolutely, littlek!
I think the production has been permanently imprinted on my brain.
Let us know what you think after your 2nd viewing, OK?
well, I won't likely be viewing it anytime soon. I think I need a new tv before I can watch anything here at home.
Oh, I can relate, littlek! My video recorder is stuffed!
My parents have an ooooold TV and the one I have is the one they got rid of to house it. I am just not that motivated to watch TV.
Me neither .... But it's a handy little thing to have when you really want to watch something good.
