By Carol Davis
SAN DIEGO—Ion Theatre Company, under the leadership of Claudio Raygoza and Glen Paris (who were named Producers of the Year by the San Diego Theatre Critics Circle in 2011), has gone and done it again.
First the little theatre that could mounted the memorable Jule Styne and Stephen Sondheim musical Gypsy: A Memoir to critical approval and now it’s gone one step further and is producing the two-part epic Gay Fantasia on National Themes Angels in America: Part I, Millennium Approaches and Angels in America Part II: Perestroika by Tony Kushner. What’s next, Rent, Jesus Christ Superstar or Mother Courage?
Speaking of courage, this theatre not only has heart, it has the courage to do what it sets out to do regardless of the size, complexity and/or depth of the production. It manages to find a way, and so far successfully.
Angels in America is Tony Kushner’s Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winning play. It is a two-part epic drama set in New York City in 1985 and spans oceans; time travels into the world beyond, and anchors itself deep in the politics of history of the then and now and in particular the AIDS epidemic that ravaged gay men in the sixties.
And what’s so striking is that what was going on in the politics of the pre-Ronald Reagan years and during the McCarthy era hearings and its chief counsel Roy Cohn, is ironically current history, with the same government still refusing to grant equal rights to gays, denying a women’s right to choose and keeping the wealth limited to the chosen few.
The fact that AIDS drugs were on the horizon then and the disease isn’t in the spotlight now as much as it was doesn’t lessen the opinion that, once again, the powers that be still use gays as whipping boys and corruption still runs rampant. The names have been changed but the corruption, the mega bucks and the dirty politicians and their rhetoric still remains.
Kushner’s play centers on two couples. One is a homosexual couple, Louis and Prior (Jason Maddy and Kyle Sorrell), and the other a Mormon couple Joe and Harper (Jason Heil and Jessica John Gercke). Both couples face emotional ups and downs as the political environment and emotional constraints in which they live force them into lifestyles not often of their choosing. Their lives criss-cross, zigzag and intertwine often paralleling each other.
Others in and outside their orbit, strange bedfellows all, circle the wagons and bring some cohesiveness and disruption along the way. As unbelievable as it may seem that characters from history, especially this set of characters, i.e. Ethel Rosenberg, a Bolshevik, an angel, Roy Cohn, an old world rabbi, a Mormon, a Jew and a drag queen, could be interrelated, Kushner manages to create credence in their ties to one another.
Joe is a lawyer destined to go places. He also happens to be a closeted gay Mormon who repressed, to some degree, his homosexual urges since he was a young boy. He takes long walks. His wife, feeling the lack of any real connection with her husband, is a pill-popping neurotic. One can hardly blame her for hallucinating and taking her mind to some pretty weird places that scare the hell out of her. Little does she know that what’s frightening her out of her wits is her own husband.
One phrase that caught my ear over and over again when the two were locked in at the dead end of a little tiff was when Joe leaned down for a ‘buddy kiss’ from Harper. A Buddy Kiss? That should have been her first clue.
Louis is Jewish with all the guilt and baggage that comes along with the ethnic label. Prior, his lover of four years has AIDS and needs the support of Louis, but when Prior’s condition worsens and those dreaded lesions begin to appear on his body, Louis along with his high flouting liberal ideals and Jewish guilt are history. He’s gone.
Armed with an exceptional ensemble of fine and dedicated actors and under the direction of Claudio Raygoza, ‘Angels’ moves along at a pace that gives one only moments on which to reflect yet keeps the cohesiveness together even with the double and sometimes triple casting.
Jason Heil’s Joe Pitt is one stunning portrayal of a man in search of self. His journey from chief law clerk in the Federal Court of Appeals about to reach his potential working for Roy Cohn comes to an abrupt dead end as his homosexuality gets in the way as he watches his life slowly unravel amid the complex world of politics and sex. Pitifully, Jessica John Gercke’s Harper is on that same journey as the fallout from his admission of being a homosexual sends her off onto another planet. It’s absolutely heartbreaking watching her. Both actors are at their professional highs.
Jessie MacKinnon is amazing as Roy Cohn, Senator Joe McCarthy’s right hand counsel and master sleaze ball (As he was in real life. I do remember the hearings). MacKinnon, who also won an award from the San Diego Theatre Critics Circle for outstanding performance in a drama for his portrayal as Eddie Carbone in A View From A Bridge is a power to be reckoned with.
Small in stature, he carries a mighty stick and whacks a powerful hit out of the park as we watch him break people’s careers on the one hand and then slither off like a snake; another closeted gay who bashes the gay community and who ultimately dies of AIDS just before he is disbarred, corrupt to the bone for putting the fix in on the Rosenbergs while carrying on an affair with his friend G. David Schine. Schine was big on scaring the bejezus out of the American public with his anti-communist propaganda. He became a consultant to Cohn at the McCarthy hearings on ‘Communists in the military.”
In some of the more humorous and haunting parts of the play, Ethel Rosenberg (Catalina Maynard plays several key small roles and is perfect as the ancient rabbi and Hanna Pitt, Joe’s mother) shows up to haunt Cohn (“You don’t look good Roy”) as he lies in the hospital on his deathbed. Her facial expressions unchanged, clutching her handbag, she manages to spook the man sufficiently as their battle raged on even in the afterlife.
Kevane La’Marr Coleman is also a hoot as Prior’s best friend, former drag queen and nurse, Belize. His sashays are one for the books and he does them well, but don’t dismiss him as all fun and games. His serious side gives us red meat to ponder as well as he shows some kindness to Cohn, now an AIDS patient who insists he has liver cancer.
Karson St. John, an actor of unlimited qualities is a treat as the prophetic, yet quirky Angel of America. (She also plays the no nonsense nurse to both Cohn and Prior). Her entrance at the end of Act I is just what the doctor ordered as she drops down from the ceiling and announces to Prior, “Greetings, Prophet; The Great work begins: The messenger has arrived.” In other words, let’s se if we can get right a second time, and I’m giving you the chance to do it.
Kyle Sorrell is most effective as Prior Walter, whose affliction from the AIDS virus becomes the major theme of Kushner’s work. Paradoxically when the Angel informs Prior that he is a Prophet and big things are expected from him, it doesn’t go unnoticed that she chooses the most physically infirm among the group to do the healing.
Jason Maddy, his partner is fine as the neurotic, fast-talking and frightened boyfriend who can’t manage being around and seeing his lover through the most trying times of his life. Unfortunately, on opening night, the chemistry between the two was missing. Strangely enough, their struggles parallel Harper’s and Joe’s.
‘Perestroika’ opens in 1986 with the worlds oldest Bolshevik (Catalina Maynard), asking, “Are we doomed?” “Will the past release us?” “Can we change?” “In time?” Or, can the world survive without communism? Of course it can and does and the play continues on its poetic path once again moving forward with the playwright showing a more humane, honest and healing side of the characters. It expands even more with a brief and funny diorama of the Mormon’s ‘coming west’, a bonding between Prior and Hanna, Joe’s Mormon mother and oddly, a relationship between Joe and Louis, Prior’s former lover.
Five years pass to the fall of the Berlin Wall where we catch up with Prior, Louis, Belize and Hanna. They are upbeat and look to a future. Prior proclaims to the audience, “The disease will be the end of many of us, but not nearly all, and the dead will be commemorated and will 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.”
Before the show Co-founder and co-director Glenn Paris announced that this was the biggest project so far attempted by the little Black Box theatre, permanently located at 6th and Penn, and now using the Lyceum Space of the San Diego Repertory Theatre downtown. It was a critical success.
This is the third time I have seen this show in its entirety. The very first time was at the Mark Taper Forum with the original Broadway cast. It was overwhelming. Several years ago it played at the Spreckels Theatre downtown. But there is something to be said about a play like this being put into a smaller, more intimate space. ‘Angels’, for all its sprawling landscape, is personal and begs to be seen up close.
Raygoza designed the multi-purpose, multi-level, stunning set with cables holding parts of it suspended over and connected by a bridge. Jessica John Gercke costume designs are complete with period looks and style in place and Karin Filijan’s awesome lighting completes the picture. With the exception of a few minor blips in the sound design (Melanie Chin) and some dropped lines (opening night jitters?) that will be gone by now, this production has a near perfect record.
Running time is one hundred fifty five minutes in Millennium. Perestroika is another one hundred and seventy minutes, again with two ‘stand up’ intermissions. Not to worry, this splendid cast will keep you completely absorbed in this oft times gut wrenching yet, on some level, humorous play. The time will be well spent. Seen together gives the full impact and is highly recommended.
The show has adult themes and some nudity and is not appropriate for anyone under 15.
See you at the theatre.
Dates: Through Dec. 11th
Organization: Ion Theatre Company
Phone: 619-544-1000
Production Type: Comedy/Drama
Where: 79 Horton Plaza, 92101, Downtown San Diego
Ticket Prices: call 619-544-1000 for details
Web: lyceumevents.org
Venue: San Diego Repertory Theatre, Lyceum Space
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Davis is a San Diego-based theatre critic. She may be contacted at carol.davis@sdjewishworld.com