by Tony Kushner
seen at the National Theatre (Lyttleton) on 7 August 2017
Marianne Elliott directs this revival of Tony Kushner's sprawling two part epic subtitled 'A Gay Fantasia on National Themes'. The second part takes up where the first part finished, with the marriage of Joe (Russell Tovey) and Harper Pitt (Denise Gough) in tatters, Prior Walter (Andrew Garfield) trying to fathom whether the Angel's visitation is real or a hallucination, Lewis (James McArdle) his ex-lover) and Joe Pitt tentatively exploring the possibilities of a relationship, and Roy Cohn (Nathan Lane) approaching death. The nurse Belize (Nathan Stewart-Jarrett) provides a strange link between all these characters.
The quality of the production that I praised in the review of Part One (in May) is easily matched in Part Two, as the themes of love, loss, betrayal and fear of death are further elaborated and examined. The disparate elements of angelic powerlessness, encroaching illness, the breakdown of personal relationships, and despair at political negligence and injustice, and the glimmers of hope in the face of it all, are woven into a compelling tapestry, and once again the skill and commitment of the cast prevent the whole fantasy from unravelling into bombastic talk.
It hardly seems possible, for example, that Lewis could talk himself into yet more pits of self-contempt while offending the people he talks to, yet he does - but more importantly, he delivers a passionate reprimand to Joe when he discovers the nature of the legal opinions the young lawyer has written for a senile judge, which he finds morally repugnant. Joe's personal and professional confusion is left unresolved, whereas Prior and Lewis, though barely reconciled, find a fragile mode of remaining in touch, surprisingly supported by Joe's mother Hannah Pitt (Susan Brown, who also plays several minor characters throughout the the two parts of the play).
In the meantime, Prior Walter faces his illness and his visions at first with pure terror, ut later with increasing determination not to be swamped by them. The Angel (Amanda Lawrence) appears overwhelmingly powerful and demanding at first, but cannot in the end impose her will; large questions of moral agency and the presence or absence of God are addressed here with sly references to the struggle between Jacob and his angel in the Old Testament. The initially unsympathetic character of Hannah Pitt provides a pragmatic counterpoint to all the high-pressure emoting, brusquely observing that Prior's lesions, far from being a moral indictment, are 'just cancers - all too human' - a strange and poignant turning point towards hope for both of them.
It's a demanding play, not least because of its length (Part One three and a half hours, Part Two just over four hours) and its focus on three major stories, but the concentration required to witness it is more than repaid in this compelling production.
The quality of the production that I praised in the review of Part One (in May) is easily matched in Part Two, as the themes of love, loss, betrayal and fear of death are further elaborated and examined. The disparate elements of angelic powerlessness, encroaching illness, the breakdown of personal relationships, and despair at political negligence and injustice, and the glimmers of hope in the face of it all, are woven into a compelling tapestry, and once again the skill and commitment of the cast prevent the whole fantasy from unravelling into bombastic talk.
It hardly seems possible, for example, that Lewis could talk himself into yet more pits of self-contempt while offending the people he talks to, yet he does - but more importantly, he delivers a passionate reprimand to Joe when he discovers the nature of the legal opinions the young lawyer has written for a senile judge, which he finds morally repugnant. Joe's personal and professional confusion is left unresolved, whereas Prior and Lewis, though barely reconciled, find a fragile mode of remaining in touch, surprisingly supported by Joe's mother Hannah Pitt (Susan Brown, who also plays several minor characters throughout the the two parts of the play).
In the meantime, Prior Walter faces his illness and his visions at first with pure terror, ut later with increasing determination not to be swamped by them. The Angel (Amanda Lawrence) appears overwhelmingly powerful and demanding at first, but cannot in the end impose her will; large questions of moral agency and the presence or absence of God are addressed here with sly references to the struggle between Jacob and his angel in the Old Testament. The initially unsympathetic character of Hannah Pitt provides a pragmatic counterpoint to all the high-pressure emoting, brusquely observing that Prior's lesions, far from being a moral indictment, are 'just cancers - all too human' - a strange and poignant turning point towards hope for both of them.
It's a demanding play, not least because of its length (Part One three and a half hours, Part Two just over four hours) and its focus on three major stories, but the concentration required to witness it is more than repaid in this compelling production.
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