Wed 10/19-Sat 10/22
The tragic, imaginative (and very long — there hours or so) drama, Angels in America Part 2: Perestroika (1993) by Tony Kushner, opened Wed 10/19 for a brief run at Baldwin Wallace University’s Allman Theatre in the Kleist Center in Berea.
Perestroika concludes Kushner’s epic look at the AIDS crisis in the United States. Assisted by a very able eight-member cast, director Scott Plate makes credible the playwright’s vivid tapestry of “what happened way back then” as exemplified by victims, their families, those who loved them, those who hated them, those they hated. Supernatural agents, products of hallucinations (ingeniously and often amusingly staged), prey upon the distraught characters, a factor which forces Part 2 to be more over-the-top than Part 1 (produced at BW last year.)
But the fantasy in no way diminishes the pathos inherent in the story. Various couples join and part as the spread of the deadly plague takes over their lives. As Prior Walter, in a sense the last man standing, Jonathan Young makes us care about what happens to him and believe Prior’s not really crazy when his visions overtake him.
And when the ghost of Ethel Rosenberg (Nora DeMilta) appears at the deathbed of Roy M. Cohn (Alex Smith), a lawyer who prosecuted her with maniacal conviction, the outcome is surprising and moving. Smith, who played Cohn last year in Part 1, gave astonishing, sweaty, belligerent life to a difficult man who, at the end, startles us all.
Perhaps the most fun in a rather not-funny story happens when the Angel (Katy Hubbell), long flowing locks and all, makes her appearance carried by her attendants. Nothing is too outrageous for the Angel and so, despite low-tech props, we kinda believe she is an angel. Other members of the excellent ensemble cast included Peter Ribar, Brooke Turner, Eric Dahl, and Tre Frazier.
BOTTOM LINE: A dramatic history more recent and more real than the justly-lauded Hamilton on Broadway. Not for the kiddos. If it’s not too late, tickets can be ordered online at www.bw.edu.
[Review by Laura Kennelly]
Baldwin Wallace College, Berea, OH 44017
One Response to “THEATER REVIEW: Angels in America at Baldwin Wallace University by Laura Kennelly”
Edward Mycue
I wish WISH I could see this production.