Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes

Joe Pitt, a law clerk, sits and waits in Roy Cohn’s office for his attention. Roy is a fictionalization of the historical Roy M. Cohn, a politically powerful New York lawyer. Roy is energetic, gleefully juggling phone calls and alternately schmoozing, cursing, and wittily insulting the clients and judges on the lines. Politely, Joe interjects to ask Roy not to “take the Lord’s name in vain” (20). Roy laughs and apologizes, asserting that he respects principles. He adds, “I’m not religious but I like God and God likes me” (21). The phone is quiet, and Joe tells Roy that he is Mormon. Getting down to business, Roy wants to make a call to Ed Meese, the Attorney General, to get Joe a high-powered position in the Justice Department in Washington. Joe hesitates, as he needs to discuss it with his wife.

Harper, Joe’s wife, is home alone and talking to herself. She is addicted to valium. She worries about the ozone layer, a delicately thin gift from God to protect the world. Harper wishes that she could escape. Mr. Lies, a hallucinatory travel agent (played by Belize), appears. He offers to sell her tickets to anywhere. Harper recognizes him as the man who sold Joe and Harper their plane tickets when they moved from Salt Lake City to Brooklyn, although she also knows he is a hallucination. Harper wants to visit Antarctica and see the hole in the ozone layer. Mr. Lies offers to arrange the trip, but Harper isn’t ready, as she feels unsafe and mentally unbalanced; however, she expects that she will be ready soon. Harper is anxious about what will happen in 15 years with the new millennium, wondering if Christ will return. She also acknowledges that she may be imagining everything. Mr. Lies recommends a vacation.

Harper shoos Mr. Lies away when she hears Joe return. Joe enters and apologizes for being late, explaining that he had been out for a walk. He speaks to Harper gently, like she is a child. Harper admits that she had been anxious, and Joe kisses and reassures her. He asks, “So how’d you like to move to Washington?” (25)

Outside the funeral home, after Sarah Ironson’s service, her grandson Louis and his partner Prior sit on a bench, preparing to go to the cemetery. Louis talks about his grandmother, confessing that she had been in an elder-care home for ten years, and that he hadn’t visited because she reminded him of his mother. Prior comforts him. Louis apologizes for not introducing Prior to his family, admitting that he cannot seem to tell them that he is gay. Prior teases Louis sardonically about his hyper-masculine act. Louis notes that Prior is in a bad mood because their cat, Little Sheba, is missing. Prior says that she probably ran away because she sensed that something was wrong. He shows Louis a dark spot on his arm, revealing that it is his first Kaposi’s sarcoma lesion, a telltale sign of AIDS. Prior speaks lightly, tossing out quips, and Louis becomes angry. Prior has been hiding his diagnosis, afraid that Louis will leave, but is telling him now since they are already dealing with death. Louis exclaims that he needs to go and bury his grandmother but promises to come home after.

In a split scene, Joe and Harper are at home, and Rabbi Chemelwitz and Louis are at the graveside service. Harper and Joe argue about going to Washington; Harper does not want to go. She claims that they are happy where they are, and that moving to Washington will make them forget the teachings of the church. Joe replies that they are not happy, and after four years as a law clerk, he is ready to fulfill his potential and further his career. Harper expresses her paranoia, claiming that she hears a man with a knife in the other room. Joe asks her how many pills she has taken today. Harper admits to three. Louis wonders why the casket lid is only held down by two pegs, and the rabbi says that it is so she can escape. Louis admits that he hopes she does not, and that he had deliberately forgotten her while she was alive. The rabbi quotes Shakespeare, commenting about “the ingratitude of children” (31).

Louis asks the rabbi what scripture says about someone who abandons a loved one at the time when they need them most. The rabbi fails to understand why someone would act this way, and Louis tries to explain that he is scared of sickness. Tiredly, the rabbi tells Louis to see a priest if he wants absolution, since “Catholics believe in forgiveness. Jews believe in Guilt” (31). Joe acknowledges that Harper is afraid but asks her to try for him. She agrees. Joe asserts that the world is changing for good, President Reagan is doing great things, and Joe wants a chance to be a part of that. Harper counters that it seems like the world is getting worse, and Joe, exasperated, exclaims that she never leaves the apartment and has emotional issues. Harper argues that she does go out, offended by the accusation of emotional issues. She asks pointedly where Joe goes when he takes his walks. Joe apologizes and they kiss. Harper tells Joe that she learned from the radio how to give a blowjob and offers to try it. Joe is embarrassed, and Harper suggests that maybe she should get pregnant, adding that the next radio program had been about the catastrophic ramifications of the hole in the ozone layer.

In the courthouse men’s room, about a week later, Joe discovers Louis crying. Joe offers awkward consolation, and Louis tells him that he has a sick friend. Louis appreciates Joe’s kindness after four of Joe’s colleagues have opened the door, seen him crying, and run away. Louis calls them “Reaganite heartless macho asshole lawyers” (35), and Joe objects as he voted for Reagan twice. Louis expresses surprise at meeting a gay Republican, and Joe stammers that he is not gay. Teasing, Louis introduces himself and thanks Joe, offering a handshake but playfully kissing his cheek instead.

A week later, Prior’s dream and Harper’s drug-induced hallucination cross over. According to the stage directions, this is a “mutual dream scene,” and “it is bewildering” (36). Prior sits at a vanity applying makeup. He laments his shortened life, believing that his makeup makes him look dead. Harper enters, and both claim that the other is in their dream/hallucination. Harper is confused that Prior, a man, is putting on makeup. Prior says that he is comforting himself. Harper admits that she took too much valium, and is worried that Joe will be upset. But she claims she is not addicted because Mormons do not believe in addiction. Prior says that he is gay, and Harper states that Mormons don’t believe in non-straight sexual orientation either. Harper does not understand how she can hallucinate someone she has never seen. She finds it depressing that the imagination cannot create new people.

Harper knows that Prior is very sick, surprising him. She explains that they are “at the threshold of revelation” (39) and can intuit things about each other. Harper asks Prior what he intuits about her, and he says she is unhappy. Harper, unimpressed, reminds him that an unhappy valium addict is not a revelation, urging him to try again. Prior says, “Your husband’s a homo” (39). Taken aback, Harper asks if it is true, and whether gay people tend to take long walks. She offers another revelation: “Deep inside you, there’s a part of you, the most inner part, entirely free of disease” (40). She disappears, and Prior is doubtful that this could be true. He wipes his makeup off. Suddenly, a feather falls from the sky. A voice tells him, “Look up, prepare the way” (41). Prior is baffled and pities himself because he feels sick. 

In a split scene, that evening, Joe and Harper are at home, and Louis and Prior are in bed. Joe is home late again, and Harper demands to know where he has been. Joe is evasive, and Harper tells him that she deliberately burned Joe’s half of dinner because “it just seemed like the kind of thing a mentally deranged sex-starved pill-popping housewife would do” (42). Joe deflects by talking about the job. Frustrated, Harper exclaims that she is afraid to ask her question. Joe counters that he does not find her attractive when she is high. Finally, Harper asks, “Are you a homo?” (43) Joe denies this, asserting that it would not matter anyway. In bed, Louis explains that Jews have no concept of the afterlife. Prior replies wryly that this perspective is pointless to someone who is dying. Louis argues that Prior is not dying, but Prior details his worsening condition.

Prior tries to change the subject. Louis asks if Prior would hate him forever if he left him now. Prior kisses his forehead and replies, “Yes” (46). Joe suggests praying with Harper, but God never helps her. Joe asserts that even if he is gay, deep underneath, he does not act on it. Harper blurts out that she is pregnant with a pill-addicted baby. Prior tells Louis about one of his ancestors, a ship’s captain with a vessel full of immigrants who stayed with his ship when it sank. The crew had taken 70 women and children on the lifeboat but started throwing people overboard when the sea got rough for fear of capsizing. When the boat made it ashore, only nine people were left. Prior feels like he might be cast overboard at any moment to make others feel safe, angry that Louis could leave with no punishment. Louis pleads, “Please get better. Please. Please don’t get any sicker” (48). 

Roy is in his doctor’s office, and his doctor, Henry (played by Hannah), breaks the news that Roy has AIDS. Roy challenges Henry to explain how he could have a disease that primarily afflicts people who are gay or addicted to drugs, warning him that if he insinuates that Roy is gay, he will ruin his career. Patiently, Henry states that in 30 years, having treated Roy for everything, including rectal warts, which only have come from sexual contact with a man, Henry concludes that Roy has had sex with many men, and that at least one of them has given him AIDS. Roy asserts that labels like AIDS and homosexual do not mean as much as he thinks.

Roy explains:

Homosexuals are not men who sleep with other men. Homosexuals are men who in fifteen years of trying cannot get a pissant antidiscrimination bill through City Council. Homosexuals are men who know nobody and who nobody knows. Who have zero clout. (51)

Conversely, Roy has power. He insists that he is a gay man who happens to have sex with men. Additionally, “AIDS is what homosexuals have. I have liver cancer” (52). Finally, Henry retorts that whatever label Roy wants to use, he has no treatment for him. There is an experimental drug called AZT, but Henry cannot even get Roy on the two-year waiting list. He suggests that Roy use his clout to get experimental treatment for “liver cancer,” because no matter what Roy calls it, “what it boils down to is very bad news” (52).

It is the third week of December, and Prior is extremely sick. From their bedroom floor, Prior begs Louis to wake up because something is wrong. Louis panics, as Prior’s temperature is dangerously high. He insists on calling an ambulance, despite Prior’s delirious screams to let him sleep. Louis tells him to shut up and calls the ambulance anyways. Prior tries to stand up, announcing that he needs to go to the bathroom. Suddenly, he loses control of his bowels and starts to apologize to Louis, who realizes with horror that Prior is covered with blood, not feces. Prior tells Louis not to touch the blood and then passes out. Terrified, Louis repeats, “Oh God help me I can’t I can’t I can’t” (54).

Joe finds Harper alone in the dark. He asks why, and Harper says that she hears the man with the knife in the other room again. Harper says, “I, um, I’m thinking of going away. By which I mean: I think I’m going off again” (55). Joe begs her to stay, blaming himself and promising to help her. Harper asks Joe what he prays for, and Joe replies, “I pray for God to crush me, break me up into little pieces and start all over again” (55). Horrified, Harper begs him not to pray for that. Joe describes an image he used to stare at in a children’s book of Bible stories of Jacob wrestling with the angel. That’s how Joe feels, struggling in an impossible fight, even though losing would mean being cast out by God. Harper confesses that she still loves him, even if it hurts. Joe asks if Harper is pregnant, and Harper says that she missed her period, but it might only be because of the valium. Harper tells Joe to go to Washington alone. Joe promises that he won’t leave Harper, but Harper decides that she is leaving Joe.

It is one a.m., and Louis is in Prior’s hospital room. A nurse named Emily (played by the Angel) reassures Louis that Prior has been sedated. Learning that Prior is his partner, Emily expresses sympathy, commenting that Prior is cute and seems nice. Louis agrees that it is hell, and that that Prior was attractive before he got sick. Emily comments on Prior’s odd name, Prior Walter, which suggests, “The Walter before this one” (57). Louis explains that there are many prior Walters, and that far back in Prior’s family tree, La Reine Mathilde had been completely devoted to William the Conqueror, embroidering a tapestry for years while she waited for him to come back from war. If he had come back injured or sick, Louis notes, she would have cared for him, and “if he had died, she would have buried her heart with him” (58). Louis is angry at himself for failing to be so loyal to Prior, admitting that he prays that Prior will die if he cannot get better. Louis announces that he is going for a walk despite the late hour, asking Emily to tell Prior goodbye and that he needed to leave.

In a split scene, Joe and Roy are in an upscale bar, and Louis and a stranger (played by Prior) meet in Central Park. Roy, drunk, takes sporadic bites from the plate that Joe isn’t touching. Joe isn’t drinking. Louis and the man are discreetly checking each other out. Joe talks about Harper, who started taking valium when she had a miscarriage. Harper came from an abusive, alcoholic home, which Mormons do not like to talk about and which Harper never mentions. Joe admits that he fell for Harper because her trauma made her different. Joe explains that Harper won’t survive in Washington, and she also won’t survive if he leaves her behind. Roy replies, “Listen, Joe. I’m the best divorce lawyer in the business” (60). Joe asks if Washington can wait, and Roy urges him to be selfish. Louis and the man approach each other, and the man asks what he wants. Louis intones, “I want you to fuck me, hurt me, make me bleed” (60). The man agrees that he wants to hurt him, becoming aggressive and making Louis call him sir. Louis suggests that they go to the man’s place, but he lives with his parents.

Roy tells Joe that all successful men have older men act like father figures, namedropping Walter Winchell, Edgar Hoover, and Joe McCarthy as his surrogate fathers. He explains, “Women are for birth, beginning, but the father is continuance” (62). Joe’s father, who is dead, was an unemotional military man who Joe thinks did not love him. Roy insists that he did. The man says he doesn’t use condoms. Louis replies that he should and starts to walk away. The man changes his mind and wears the condom, and they start to have sex. The condom breaks, and the man asks if he should stop. Louis replies, “Keep going. Infect me. I don’t care” (63). Unnerved, the man pulls out. Sarcastically, Louis sends his regards to his parents, and the man slaps him. Roy, who has known Joe for five years and considers him family, announces that he is dying of liver cancer. Roy is unafraid to die because dying cannot be tougher than life, but he insists that Joe take the job and not let love stop him from living.

Three days later, Belize—who is a nurse as well as Prior’s ex-partner and a former drag queen—visits Prior in the hospital. Prior is improving but still very ill. Lovingly, Belize says that Prior looks terrible and produces a bottle of “voodoo cream” (65). Prior complains about the smell and the threat to his suppressed immune system, but Belize massages him with it. Prior is upset about Louis, and Belize reassures him that Louis will return. Prior divulges that he’s been hearing a voice but doesn’t want Belize to tell his doctor, pleading, “Please. I want the voice; it’s wonderful. It’s all that’s keeping me alive” (66). Prior also confesses that the voice gives him an erection. Belize agrees to keep his secret. Prior feels gratified to know that Louis must certainly feel massive guilt for leaving. Belize leaves, promising to support Prior and telling him to stay moored to reality. Alone, Prior tells the voice that it is safe to talk. The voice needs to go but promises to come back. Prior wonders if the voice is going to lead him into death, but the voice assures him that she is a messenger of truth. The voice tells Prior to prepare himself—not for death, but for the great work they will do together. Prior is confused.

It is mid-January 1986, and Roy and Joe are in a restaurant with Martin Heller (played by Harper), who works for the Justice Department. Cheerfully, Martin tells Joe that the liberal left is all but dead, and conservatives will control everything in the next few years. Joe agrees that this is great news, but Roy, smiling ironically, says, “Aw, shut the fuck up Martin” (70). Roy proudly tells Joe that he is so powerful that he can say that to such a powerful person from Washington. Roy commands Martin to rub his back, and after a moment of reluctance, Martin does so. He tells Martin that Joe is special and entirely supportive of Roy. Martin states that they need an answer about the job. Roy tells Martin that Joe is unsure because his wife does not want to go, and Martin agrees that this is a mistake. They push Joe to accept, and when Joe hesitates again, Roy starts to get angry. Finally, Roy shows Joe a letter that he just received.

The New York State Bar Association wants to disbar Roy. Roy claims that it is an act of revenge because he refuses to bow down to the rules, but Martin notes that it is because Roy borrowed half a million dollars from one of his clients and never paid it back. Joe is shocked at this breach of ethics but tries to give Roy the benefit of the doubt. Roy retorts that the client has no paperwork to prove it, so Roy plans to deny the allegations. Joe, stiffer, says that he will help Roy however he can. Roy replies that Joe can help by becoming his influential friend in the Justice Department. Martin pretends not to hear. Joe, horrified, tells Roy that it would be unethical. Furious, Roy tells Martin to leave the table. Roy berates Joe for thinking that he is too good to play politics, stating that Joe will be his man, and he refuses to be disbarred. Martin returns, and Joe promises to think about it. Martin says, “It’s the fear of what comes after the doing that makes the doing hard to do. […] But you can almost always live with the consequences” (75).

Outside the courthouse, Louis is sitting on a bench eating a hot dog. Joe enters with a handful of hot dogs and asks to join him. He asks Louis about his sick friend. Louis says that his condition is worse, but he appreciates Joe’s concern. Changing the subject, Louis thinks it is strange that a nice person would vote for Reagan. Joe suggests that they avoid politics. They joke about their unhealthy lunches, and Louis quips that, unlike Joe, he is trying to kill himself. Joe says that he just drinks Pepto Bismol. Louis mentions Reagan’s children and gossip that Ronald Reagan, Jr. is gay. Bothered, Joe insists that he is not gay, and that Louis shouldn’t make assumptions like that about people. Based on an article in People, Louis claims that the Reagans don’t relate emotionally as a family; he wonders what it is like to not feel obligations toward the ones a person loves. Joe replies that people can’t just do whatever they want, and Louis asks if Joe is trying to say something.

There is a moment of sexual tension between them, which Joe breaks. Louis tells Joe that acting impulsively is scary and sometimes heartless. As Louis starts to exit, Joe, at a loss for what to say to keep him there, tells Louis that yesterday, on Sunday, Joe thought it was Monday and tried to come to work. The courthouse was empty, and Joe felt the momentary thrill of everything being gone. He wishes that he could shed everything and walk away free. Joe decides that he can’t go into work today. Louis agrees that he shouldn’t. Joe drinks some Pepto Bismol and states, “I just can’t be this anymore. I need… a change” (79). Louis offers to keep him company. Scared, Joe hesitates for a moment and then says yes. They both admit that they haven’t been sleeping. Louis licks a napkin and goes to Joe, wiping the Pepto Bismol from his lips. Louis suggests that maybe the court will never reconvene, and they can really be free to live for themselves.

Later, in the middle of the night, Joe calls his mother, Hannah, from a payphone. Hannah, who lives in Salt Lake City, is immediately concerned about the late-night call, and she asks about Harper. Joe says that Harper is fine, before acknowledging that she isn’t fine. He then says he needs to talk to his mother about something. Hannah is surprised and horrified when Joe admits that he is in Central Park at this hour. She tells Joe to go home immediately and call from there. Joe explains, “I come here to watch, Mom. Sometimes. Just to watch” (81). As Hannah starts to ask what Joe could be watching in the park at four in the morning, Joe asks if his father loved him. Hannah refuses to have that conversation. Then Joe tells her that he is gay. After a silence, Hannah replies, “You’re old enough to understand that your father didn’t love you without being ridiculous about it” (82). She tells Joe to go home to his wife, and they should pretend that he had never called. Suddenly, Hannah admonishes him sharply for drinking, which she says is a sin, and hangs up the phone.

In a split scene, Harper is at home, and Joe has just entered. Louis shows up to Prior’s hospital room. The two scenes move rapidly and overlap. Louis tells Prior that he is moving out of their apartment, and Prior is irate that Louis would abandon him in the hospital. Prior calls it criminal, but Louis replies that it is just what happens when someone reaches their limit. Louis promises to continue taking care of Prior and to sometimes spend nights there, but Prior finds his efforts insufficient. Joe promises Harper that he won’t leave her. Harper exclaims that she is leaving him, and Joe begs her to stay. Harper claims that she hasn’t taken any pills because she’s pregnant, but Joe has spoken to her gynecologist and knows that she isn’t. Joe explains that he has tried so hard not to be who he is, but he has never been sexually attracted to Harper. Harper tells Joe to just go to Washington without her, and he admits at her prodding that that is what he wants. Louis asserts, “You can love someone and fail them” (84), and Prior argues that while some people can do that, Louis is incapable of love. Louis tells Prior that he loves him, and Prior replies, “Who cares?” (84)

Harper starts to become overwhelmed, and she pleads for Mr. Lies to come and take her away. Joe says that Harper is always talking about her fear of men with knives, and now he understands that all those men are him. Harper is surprised at this revelation, realizing that it’s true. Devastated, Prior tries to impress upon Louis that he’s dying, and that after four-and-a-half years together, Louis does not understand love if he can leave. Prior orders Louis to leave his room, threatening to scream if he refuses. Suddenly, Joe coughs blood into his hand. Prior screams. Harper calls again for Mr. Lies, who appears. She tells him to take her somewhere far from Joe, and they disappear together. Joe turns back to her, confused to find her gone. Prior closes his eyes and swears that Louis won’t be there when he opens them again. Louis exits. Prior opens his eyes, noting that it worked. Joe calls Harper’s name. Prior moans, “I hurt all over. I wish I was dead” (87). 

The same day in Salt Lake City, Hannah is discussing the sale of her house with Sister Ella Chapter (played by the actor who plays the Angel). Sister Ella is Hannah’s closest friend and also a real estate agent. Sorry to lose her only friend, Sister Ella tries to persuade Hannah to wait before moving, but Hannah insists that she cannot. Sister Ella quips, “I decided to like you ‘cause you’re the only unfriendly Mormon I ever met” (88). She points out that New York City is just a collection of very small rooms. She wishes that people would just stay where they are, and one of the reasons she sells real estate is to give people a home where they can do that. Sister Ella smokes a cigarette, which Hannah declines because someone might see her. Hannah insists that Salt Lake City is a tough, dry, and difficult place to live. She sneaks a furtive drag of Sister Ella’s cigarette. Sister Ella says, “This is the home of saints, the godliest place on earth, [… and] every step a Believer takes away from here is a step fraught with peril” (89), urging Hannah to stay. Hannah clarifies that it is the home of Latter-Day Saints, which Sister Ella claims is the only kind of saint left. Hannah replies, “But still. Late in the day… for saints and everyone” (89).