Gamm Delivers Divine Storytelling In ‘Angels in America’

This is a masterful production in every way, from the writing and acting to the sound and lighting design. Simply put, theater doesn’t get any better than this.

Although the focus of the story is the growing AIDS epidemic in the mid-1980s, the most fascinating quality is Kushner’s look at how our flawed humanity defines the way we respond to personal tragedy.

Over the course of three hours, the lives of several unrelated people become intertwined as they travel life’s highway to salvation – or damnation.

Angels in America : Powerful Performances

For example, let’s consider Prior (Haas Regen), a gay man who has been afflicted with AIDS. He is facing an unpleasant demise yet exhibits a sense of humor as a manifestation of his inner strength.

Prior’s lover, Louis (Ben Steinfeld) cruelly abandons him and seeks solace in a random hookup with a street hustler. Louis has compassion for Prior, but can’t handle the idea that he might succumb to the disease himself. 

Meanwhile, Joe (Jeff Church), a conservative lawyer who is also a closeted gay man, is dealing with his Valium-addicted wife Harper (Gabrielle McCauley).

Joe’s mentor, the bombastic Roy Cohn (Tony Estrella) has also been diagnosed with AIDS, although Roy insists it’s really liver cancer, and he is not a gay man, merely a heterosexual man who has sex with men.

Kushner’s dialogue has a grace and poetry to it. These characters speak in rich metaphors as they deal with life’s darkest moments.

Director Brian McEleney, a longtime member of Trinity Repertory Company, has assembled an exquisite cast, which includes fellow Trinity vets such as Phyllis Kay, in multiple roles including a Rabbi, a Doctor, and Joe’s mother, and Rachael Warren, as The Angel. 

Kay and Warren prove their versatility, as does Rodney Witherspoon II as Belize, Prior’s nurse and former lover. 

Estrella is simply unforgettable as the vicious and thoroughly despicable Cohn, prone to uttering a string of profanities at anyone who gets on his bad side. It is to Estrella’s credit that he accomplishes the near impossible task of making Cohn into a sympathetic figure. 

Church, who recently played Hamlet, delivers another first-rate performance as the deeply troubled Joe. Church and McCauley are positively electric in their scenes together.

Regen and Steinfeld are mesmerizing as Prior and Louis, two men whose lives are torn apart by an illness beyond their comprehension.

Set designer Patrick Lynch has created a grungy subway station as the backdrop, complete with a bed in the middle and a posh apartment on both ends of the stage. 

Kushner views AIDS not simply as a medical issue, but a political one as well.

The characters discuss President Ronald Reagan and members of his cabinet. Cohn boasts about his White House influence to Joe. Power is what matters to him most, not the fact that hundreds of thousands of people are dying all around him.

“Angels in America” blends the horrific (Prior’s purple lesions) with the surreal, such as when two of his ancestors (Estrella and Church) visit Prior amid drug-related hallucinations. 

The Angel beckons Prior as he and everyone else awaits the dawn of the new millennium, a new century filled with promise – and peril.

The story is only half-finished. Part 2 – Perestroika will be performed in the fall. The concluding production has the potential to be as much of a powerhouse rollercoaster ride as Part One. I can’t wait to see what happens to these characters in this wild world of Kushner’s imagination. 

Angels in America runs through June 15. The Gamm Theatre, 1245 Jefferson Boulevard, Warwick, RI. Runtime is 3 hours with two intermissions. For tickets, call 401-723-4266 or visit gammtheatre.org.

Author: Joe Siegel

Joe Siegel is a regular contributing writer for WarwickPost.com. His reporting has appeared in The Sun Chronicle in Attleboro and EDGE.