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Heaven Must Be Missing An Angel....or Heidelberg?
9th July 2008
By Melissa Trickey
Heidelberg Theatre Company have a long history of presenting
Melbourne with high quality dramatic works and “Angels in America
Part One: Millennium Approaches” is no exception. Considered one of
the greatest plays to come out of the twentieth century by many,
Angels in America promises to be a great offering. I spoke with
Director Bruce Akers about the impending season.
“What is Angels in America? It’s an indictment of the American
political system which failed to recognise for many years the AIDS
epidemic. The USA was at that time very much in the grips of the
conservative Reagan administration. Tony Kushner, the author,
personalises this story through the experiences of two couples- one
a gay
New York
couple ripped apart when one discloses that he has developed AIDS
and his partners’ inability to cope with the disease, and a married
Mormon couple unhappily living in New York. The wife is a
pill-popping agoraphobic and the husband a Republican lawyer
desperately fighting his closeted homosexuality. Hovering over the
play is the presence of Roy Cohn (the only factual character in the
piece) - he was a well-known lawyer, famous for his association with
the McCarthy ‘House of Un-American Activities’ during the 1950’s.
His influence on the closeted lawyer is quite profound in this
piece. As with all great plays, relationships change, are torn apart
and re-formed. That is the essence of what happens in ‘Angels in
America’.”
 “Tony
Kushner wrote “Angels in America: Part One Millennium Approaches”
obviously first and it tells the story of these disparate characters
up until the arrival of the Angel. The second part of this epic,
“Perestroika”, picks up the story immediately after this arrival and
follows the story through for the next 5 years. Part One is set
between October 1985 and February 1986. Part One was performed on
Broadway in May 1993 with Part Two “Perestroika” following in
November 1994. Both plays were rewarded the Tony Awards for Best
Play back to back in 1993 and 1994 respectively.”
“My primary role as Director with this piece is to tell the story of
these characters- not to hide it behind special effects (of which
the play has many!). AIDS is still too common in our community
today- there is unfortunately a relaxing of attitude to the effect
of this disease but people are still dying from it. “Angels in
America” is regarded as the bible of gay plays and as such it
deserves to be seen. It’s a very difficult piece with a lot of scene
changes and special effects but at its’ heart it is a simple story
of people struggling against intolerance, loneliness and trying to
come to terms with who they are.”
“The play also is an angry statement about the America of the
1980’s- the refusal to recognise the AIDS disease which was
decimating the gay community and then the slow reaction to it. It
exposes (through the character of the factual Roy Cohn) the extent
of political corruption existing within the Administration and the
fact that a gay man (i.e. Cohn) not only denied his own sexuality
but actually worked against the gay community on many occasions.”
 As
part of the season, the company have decided to give us something
extra… “We decided to have as part of the rehearsal process two
nights whereby we would read Part 2 “Perestroika”- this would give
the actors an understanding as to the journey of their characters.
It was then decided that this should be a Public Benefit performance
after the matinee on Sunday 20th July commencing at 8:00pm. Because
the actors will not be moving the play (it will be a stationary read
from the stage) - we have requested that the Entrance Fee will be a
Gold Coin PLUS (with emphasis on the PLUS!) and all proceeds will go
to the Victorian AIDS Council.”
And how is the play itself shaping up?! “Because this play is so
outstanding and so rarely performed in Australia- I have attracted
some of the finest actors in Melbourne. They have approached their
roles with complete dedication and enthusiasm and I have never
worked with a more talented, committed group of people. The acting
in this play is a joy to behold. We have people of the calibre of
Angelo DeCata, Juliet Hayday, Tim Constantine, Paul Kennedy, Kate
Bowers, Justin Stephens, Rhiannon Leach and Peter Tedford. Some are
from the Melbourne Musical Theatre scene but they are more familiar
names to those audience members who follow the large ‘Straight’
Theatre scene in
Melbourne.
They are the best!”
“HTC has one of the largest stages in Melbourne and for this play to
be completely successful a large stage is required. The Lighting and
Sound are major components of this play and we have secured the
services of Jason Bovaird (well know in Musical Theatre circles) to
come up with a brilliant lighting plot and Sebastian Bertoli (very
much an up and coming Designer) to organise the complicated Sound
Design. The production looks magnificent on the HTC stage and the
audience is in for one helluva trip!”
Angels in America Part One: Millennium Approaches opens on July 9th;
see our What’s On section
for more details.
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