by Tony Kushner
Canadian Stage Company, Toronto Ontario
indefinite run
A Stage Door Review by Roger Kershaw and Jim Lingerfelt

This Angels soars

Anticipation and excitement accompanied us as we attended the new Canadian Stage Company production of the award-winning Tony Kushner epic Angels in America, Part One: Millennium Approaches at the Berkeley Street Theatre in Toronto, and we were not disappointed. This brilliant work succeeds on every artistic level -- writing, acting, direction and design -- creating an exhilarating and astonishing theatrical experience.

Subtitled "A Gay Fantasia on National Themes," the story is now famous. Two couples, one gay and one nominally straight, embody Kushner's incisive and all-encompassing script covering religion, sexuality, AIDS, politics, love, loss, greed, power and ambition in Reagan's America. Kushner presents demonic negativity and excess in the personality of right-wing McCarthyite and closet homosexual lawyer, Roy Cohn. Disparate plot lines are magically woven as the characters embark on a historical and fantastical journey in reality and imagination to New York, Salt Lake City, Antarctica and beyond. It is a sprawling, intellectual and heady mix.

Director and CSC artistic director Bob Baker in association with the artistic team has painted a rich canvas of images and sound. The spellbinding three-hour-plus play moves quickly with the script, lightning set changes and special effects overwhelming the senses.

The acting ensemble is uniformly splendid. The talented Patricia Hamilton opens the play as Rabbi Isidor Chemelwitz, in one of several roles she carries in both genders, including Cohn's doctor and the ghost of American spy, Ethel Rosenberg, whose death sentence Cohn considered his greatest achievement. Tom Wood gives us a fire and brimstone portrait of an offensive and spiteful character in his portrayal of Roy Cohn.

The central character of the play is Prior Walter, played by Steve Cumyn, as the AIDS-afflicted unwitting Prophet. His faithless lover, Louis Ironson (Alex Poch-Goldin) self-described as "the lowest of the low," cannot face the challenge of his partners illness and is discovered in tears by Joe Pitt (David Storch), who, by his tender concern, Louis senses to be gay. Joe, a devout Mormon and right-wing Republican, is shocked by this "mistake"and then realizes he is. Not, however, as shocked as his Valium-popping wife, Harper (Karen Hines), who escapes to a dream world with the help of an imaginary travel agent (Cassel Miles). Miles also shines in the role of Belize, a female impersonator/philosopher friend of Prior and Louis. The remaining cast member is Linda Prystawska, playing an assortment of characters including The Angel.

Director Bob Baker is hailed for his bold use of sound and minimalist set, employing three of Canada's foremost designers, Leslie Frankish with set and costumes, Kevin Lamotte's lighting, and David Patridge's sound. Their combined talents produce some of the most brilliant stage effects ever seen, from the subtle reducing spot on a retreating characters face at a scene change, to the explosively dazzling Antarctica sequence, to the overwhelming entrance of The Angel in the final scene, which can only be described as the first we have ever seen that actually brought the house down!

Angels has been called the most important play of our generation, venerated by scholars and audiences alike. It embraces so many concepts and touches so many personal issues that you will be thinking and talking about it for a long time. Don't miss the most important theatrical event to hit Toronto in a decade or more. Canadian Stage Company has arranged for Angels, Part One to play an indefinite run, with tickets now on sale up to March 30. Angels in America, Part Two: Perestroika opens November 6, and continues the story from the revelation of The Prophet. The marathon dates (Part One matinées and Part Two evenings, a full seven hours of power) are nearly sold out, but good seats are still available for the individual performances, at $28 to $45. Call the box office at 416-368-3110.