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12 November 2007

History is About to Crack Wide Open (Millennium Approaches)



North Carolina Stage Company has launched a new series for the 2007-2008 season. Four plays have been selected to be read on stage. The first offering is Angles In America: Millennium Approaches by Tony Kushner, directed by Angie Flynn-McIver. This is part one of a two-part play.

I have seen the full production of Angles In America twice and have found it to be powerful and moving. Entering the theater, I wondered if a reading could capture my attention for the almost three hour long drama. Can a group of actors sitting around on stage, reading from a book be that compelling? Can they do justice to the script?

It didn’t take long to find out. The eight people assembled for this reading, some local and some out of towners, turned out to be actors, not readers. Without the usual trappings of costumes, lighting, lines to remember, and all the technical issues with a full production, they were able to focus on the script. Their acting ability cut to the heart of the play in a powerful and dramatic way, giving us Kushner’s words, thoughts, and emotions in a lively and compelling performance.

The actors did not just speak their lines. That would have been boring. Sitting in those chairs, they acted their lines. They made us laugh and cry. They made us glad to be alive and afraid that we were. They challenged old thought patterns; not by saying “you must agree with everything in this reading,” but by offering us an opportunity to pay attention to who we were.

Was this play really three hours long? Time flew by as the performers expertly drew us into the play. It seemed all to soon when the stage manager said “End of Part One.” For a long moment we were all stunned into silence, audience and actors alike. Together we were thinking, “Is it really over? I’m not ready to end it. Look at what happened here!” Now I am wondering if some day there will be an Angles In America, Part Two..

Robert Arthur

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I recently came across a blog called wnctheatre.livejournal.com and was delighted to find some reviews of local shows. I have no idea who the blogger is or how to get in touch, so for now I'm posting these without permission. If anyone knows the blogger, please check and see if they mind!
Bernhard Grier--

It is truly a pity that North Carolina Stage Company was/is only able to put up a staged reading of Tony Kushner’s Angels in America: Millennium Approaches, and even more of a pity if you were one of the many who missed it. And with only three performances and probably fewer than twenty people in the audience when I saw it, that’s a lot of you. Director Angie Flynn-McIver assembled a very fine ensemble of actors to bring this achingly beautiful script to life.

Having only seen the HBO miniseries of AiA, I was very curious as to how the exclusion of all the supernatural visuals would affect the show overall. As it turns out, I actually enjoyed it more being able to focus just on the dialogue and the characters. The situations and emotions in this script are large enough; one doesn’t miss books rising out of the floor and light shows announcing the angel’s arrival. (This is not to criticize Kushner’s concepts, but to praise the effectiveness of the pared-down nature of this readers’ theatre.)

The show opens with Jonathan Frappier, as closeted gay Mormon lawyer Joe, and Graham Somethingorother (sorry, forgot to bring home a playbill) as even-more-closeted gay power attorney Roy. (Edited to add: Okay I was thinking back on the play and it totally doesn't open with these two but I'm going to keep it so I don't have to rewrite because it doesn't change my review really.) The chemistry between these two was really something special. Somethingorother’s boisterous crassness juxtaposed with Frappier’s boyish earnestness made for fascinating scene work every time they were on stage together. I have seen Frappier in several productions, and I actually think this is, so far, my favorite performance of his – despite, or, perhaps, because of, the limited preparation available to them to get this play on its feet (or its stool legs, as the case may be). He has a particularly heart-wrenching scene in which he comes out over the phone to his mother, portrayed quite well by Valerie Hogstrom with all the unintentional humor and unusual combination of emotional detachment and unconditional love that can be found best in hyper-conservative-religious mothers. Frappier’s scenes with his wife, Harper, played absolutely brilliantly by Neela Muñoz, are equally powerful. Muñoz has a way of speaking volumes without ever opening her mouth, and is captivating to watch at every turn.

(Apologies for being rather circuitous in my mention of characters; the show is rather difficult to talk about only linearly.) Another primary plotline features Prior, played by Willie Repoley, a young gay man dying of AIDS, and his partner of over four years, Louis, played by Michael MacCauley. Both actors are wonderful in their respective roles, and their scenes together are nothing short of shattering. Most of my favorite scenes involve one or both of these two – “favorite” being an odd word, since in using it I mean the scenes where my heart was ripped out most violently and I was gut-punched most severely. Bill Muñoz effortlessly slips into the role of Belize, Prior’s and Louis’s mutual friend, whose tenderness towards Prior is only paralleled by his rather delightful long-suffering tolerance of Louis’s self-important political and sociological rants. Finally we have the Angel herself, played by Katie Langwell. Langwell appears only twice as the Angel, but doubles well as a few other characters, including a fantastic turn as a New York City lunatic in a scene of much-needed levity.

I expect my praise of this show may seem over-the-top, but it sincerely was one of the more moving theatre experiences I’ve had in quite a while, and I was left thinking about the play for days. Kudos to all involved.