“This disease will be the end of many of us, but not nearly all. And the dead will be commemorated, and we'll struggle on with the living, and we are not going away. We won't die secret deaths anymore. The world only spins forward. We will be citizens. The time has come.”
Angels in America is a masterpiece. There’s no other way to describe it. It’s a true masterpiece. I watched it the first time when I was in high school, and I’ll be honest, a lot of it I simply wasn’t able to grasp. Watching it again now, older and more in tune with my queerness, with a deeper understanding of our history and the immense loss our community has suffered, I am finally able to take in this six-part miniseries in and truly understand the scope of its magnificence.
I am in awe with how perfectly this show blends fantastical elements with realism to reflect the emotional and political landscape of that time. It’s such a moving story about the power of resilience and the tenacity of the human spirit. While the show chronicles the devastation caused by the AIDS epidemic, what astounds me is how full it is of hope, redemption, and progress in midst of overwhelming loss.
I can’t even imagine how life changing it must have been to watch the original play live. Tony Kushner’s writing is just incredible; every monologue, every character, every storyline is so perfectly crafted. And the performances are as remarkable as the writing. Meryl Streep, Emma Thompson, Al Pacino, Patrick Wilson, Ben Shenkman are all excellent, but Justin Kirk, Jeffrey Wright and Marie Louise Parker specifically stood out to me. Jeffrey Wright, in particular, was phenomenal. I was Delighted to learn that he won an Emmy for his performance and so did Parker.
If you haven’t seen this, do yourself a favor and watch it immediately. If not for the story, then for Emma Thompson saying “The stiffening of your penis is of no consequence!”
